The Next Four Months
by PixieXW
Summary: After the cruel way the film of prince Caspian was finished this had to be done! The Pevensies never left and a year on the bay age of the dawn treader is about to take place though some little feet are about to through a spanner in the works for the High Queen of Narnia and the King of Telmar.
1. Chapter 1

(Peter)  
"Peter!" I turned to see my sister- the elder of them- running along the corridor to catch up with me. She held her long scarlet skirts in one hand so she could free her lnnfeet. Her dark hair flew out like a river behind her, her crown slipping a little.  
" I thought so, I knew it but I wasn't sure and now I am and oh Peter I have to tell someone but I can't tell Caspian and oh, I never expected that-." I held my fingers to my sisters lips. This was the sort of thing that I would have expected from Lucy not Susan, it was rare to see my sister so happy. She was grinning with a smile I hadn't seen since I was a young boy, only twice other than then had I seen her grin like our younger sister- once on the day of our coronation and once on her wedding day.  
She'd always been happier here, in Narnia, than she was at home but since she was married she seemed to be the happiest ever. There was no doubt that there was real and true love between my sister and King Caspian and there union had brought so much happiness to Narnia also. The Narnians had became acustom to the story of their young King and Queen, we had even been invited to a play put on by school children which showed the tale of them. It wasn't hard to remember how much I'd disliked Caspian at the beginning and I could still remember the first time I had seen him look at Susan with the predator's eye that I knew well from my time as a school boy. The look in his eye suggested that he wanted to take her and have his way with her. I was protective, more so than I had expected I would be but Susan and I were exactly eleven months apart, she was as close to me as a twin but still distant enough that she was a baby to me.  
It was needless to say I'd learned that Caspian's look of longing was more than just for one aspect of love, when I first saw them share a kiss I felt strangely proud- proud of them both- Susan for being able to show the rest of the world what she really thought rather than just her siblings. And I was proud of Caspian as a brother, like I would have been had I watched Edmund treat a girl with such respect.  
Now there was something more, a look of love was present in Susan's blue eyes when she stopped in front of me. A look of hope.  
"I must tell you quickly but you have to promise not to tell Caspian, if he were to find out now he wouldn't leave with you and there is not a chance that you are going alone into uncharted water. There's going to have to be a change however because it wouldn't be safe for me to go with you, I have spoken to Lucy and her and Edmund- reluctantly I might add- are staying here while you and Caspian go out to discover these islands."  
"Susan," I laughed, taking a gentle hold of her shoulders, "you aren't making a lick of sense."  
She took a deep breath letting it out with a 'hmm'. Her eyes became focused on the floor and she chewed her lip for a while.  
"I don't really know how to say this," she muttered before looking back at me.  
"Well I was advised not to go on this trip by the doctor because it could be unsafe in this... State for me to travel so far and for so long and after a while I would just get under your feet and slow you down and I don't think it would help the sailors traditions for a baby to be born during a voyage."  
I was stunned, did she mean, was Susan really? She answered my question herself with less smiling eyes, eyes that were more cautious, that were more Susan.  
"Peter, your an Uncle." Those words were whispered. She looked a bit nervous because I was so shocked- she probably didn't realise how much it effected me. My baby sister, the one who yelled at me and put me in my place, the one that cried on my shoulder and made me see the other side, the girl I'd walked down the aisle in a long white dress, was going to be a mother. I tried to picture it, Susan with her body swollen with child, Susan carrying a tiny baby with long fingers, Susan holding the hands of a teetering toddler in a long dress. She seemed so young to me, too young to have a baby of her own but she wasn't so young, she had reminded me on so many occasions still I couldn't quite grasp the idea.  
"Peter?" She asked again, even quieter than she had been before. I looked down at her worried eyes, too much worry and doubt for the Queen who had became so happy and free.  
I didn't say anything, I just wrapped my arms around her in a gentle hug. I didn't know very much at all about babies, other than how they were made, that they cried and that they were very tiny so I was careful of how I handled Susan. I knew Pregnant women were very fragile though how fragile I wasn't entirely sure. Pleasant moment aside- I was glad I could hide behind the business to mask the shock I felt- I began to ask the more important questions.  
"What do I tell Caspian, about why you aren't coming with us?"  
"Tell him that we might be needed here, say that I'm ill if you must- it wouldn't really be a lie I don't exactly feel fantastic." I nodded and carried on,  
"And won't it be a bit of a shock when we return for you to hand Caspian a baby?"  
She laughed and shook her head,  
"No, the baby shouldn't be here by then. If you are on schedule there will be plenty of time. You do see why it would be foolish to tell him now, don't you?" This time I nodded.  
"The others don't know yet, I told Lucy it was a female thing that she might want to assist in and I don't think Edmund knows anything other than Lucy begged him to stay." Susan spoke as if answering the question I was yet to ask.  
"Now you better go and prepare," she said, her regal, authoritative tone appearing from nowhere. . I agreed and began to head of towards my quarters as Susan headed back to hers, dragging the train of her dress in an arch behind her. I took a few steps before being able to say what I needed to.  
"Susan?" She twisted her head round to face me,  
"Congratulations."

(Susan)  
I knew my plan would fall perfectly into place. Peter always meant well but he was awful when it came to the keeping of a secret. I just had to hoped could keep his new found knowledge to himself until they were at least a days journey from home. Our home was yet to be finished, our real home which had been reconstructed in its exact position from the past. Caspian had said he felt he owed it to us. Now our baby would be born where it belonged.  
That felt so very strange, Our baby. My baby. I'd known what all the signs and symptoms had meant before it had been confirmed. I then had to give my permission for the staff to be briefed. I had been force out of the period of amazement by the fact that I was now a serious target for assassination. The same healer who had proclaimed that I was in deed expecting had warned me I should have a spy employed and a personal body guard to follow me everywhere I went including within my own chambers. A true harsh reality for me to take on, being Queen was not all it was cracked up to be.  
And, because of that what I did on the departure of my elder brother and husband may have seemed a bad idea. I tied my horn to Caspian's belt, a little bit of settlement for my mind, a little bit to ease the doubt. The fear he might not come back.  
He had little chance to protest since the the departure on the dawn treader had became much more public than first planned. There were crowds of Narnians and Telmarines alike as we wished two of the three kings a safe journey. Reepicheep stayed around my feet, sword drawn ready. He was taking his job as a temporary body guard very seriously, knowing he was the very best person for the job. He could hide easily amongst my skirts without being noticed and he would stay hidden in an inside pocket on my favourite cloak if he had to be.  
Lucy disappeared amongst the crowd, Glenstorm following her to greet our subjects and people alike. Edmund was going over the finer details of the ship with its captain looking over the map the dwarf held up to him. I gave Peter a glance, suggesting he should give me a moment to say goodbye properly, he rolled his eyes and walked off mumbling that he was going to look for Lucy.  
Caspian smiled but his eyes were concerned, he looked around himself before stepping up to me laying one hand carefully on my waist. His head bent down considerably so he could lol me in the eye.  
"Be safe, my Queen," he whispered, lightly kissing my cheek with his dry lips. I felt my cheeks blush a bright rouge when he touched me. Caspian laughed lightly,  
" some things never change,"  
"I'll miss you," I whispered back, closing the respectable distance and sliding my hands across his back, holding him tightly to me but without too much pressure that could be considered far too forward for a public situation.  
"Come with us then," his tone was hopeful but I had to shake my head.  
" I'm needed here and besides if I go then you won't get a fantastic surprise when you return." I got to give the knowing smile this time while my husband frowned.  
"Your Majesty, we are ready to set sail." The voice of Drinian came over the crowds of people. Caspian sighed before quickly kissing me, catching me off guard as his lips captured mine. I blushed again as he pulled back. A quick, sealing hug and he was gone, we waved them off along with the crowds while my little mouse friend complained about what he'd witnessed.

(Lucy)  
I'd known something was changing. I was able to feel it, sense it somehow, I always had but Susan had been different for a while. She looked different; her cheeks more flushed, her eyes brighter and she was so careful with her movements, like a crystal vase older than our reign was held in her buttered fingers. Her appetite changed too some days she scaresly ate a thing. When Glenstorm came cantering along to my chambers I was sure something was wrong with Susan. My hand itched to go to my belt for cordial, but that was a silly assumption it wasn't likely she was sick and only once had she shot herself while using her bow. The centaur knocked rapidly on the door, bowing when I answered before his broad, strong voice came down to me.  
" Your Majesty, I must beg the help of your healing cordial, you sister may be in grave danger." My heart had sank, I hadn't wanted it to be true. I grabbed the bottle from its holder on my belt which hung on the back of a chair before rushing after the centaur to Susan's own chambers at the opposite end of the Telmarine castle. I dashed after the tall man on his four hooves desperately trying to keep up. What could be wrong if he was in such a rush to save her? Susan never got hurt.  
Entering her bedroom she was lying flat amongst the sheets but her eyes were open, she was alert and saying she was alright. But then all of us Pevensies were good at that.  
I noticed Reepicheep sitting near my sisters head and it dawned on me that I hadn't seen the little mouse in all the time since Peter and Caspian had left for the islands. And the times when I had seen the tiny little knight he was always with Susan. Right now he appeared to be arguing with her, she was shaking her head while he stood paws on hips glaring at her with his tiny eyes.  
" Honestly, it's just the normal kind of sickness- our Mum had it terribly bad- I'm fine. There's no need to waste Lucy's cordial on nothing."  
" But please you majesty, I am sure the king, in fact I am certain the KINGS would rather we risked wasting a drop than he returned to here of your passing." The little mouse and my sister continued to argue till eventually I stepped forward and opened the bottle, twisting the cork with a pop. Susan sighed rolled her eyes but submitted and let me drop a little fire flower juice onto her tongue.  
" See, I am perfectly safe, there was no reason to worry. Now, may I have a moment alone with my sister, I have to explain the situation-"  
"Oh but you highness, I was instructed not to allow you out with my own eyes and ears..."  
"You will hear everything from just outside the door, please I would appreciate it." He sighed and trudged off, leaping down from the edge of her bed mumbling something about if only she'd been the evil queen instead of the Gentle one. She could, in deed bring almost everyone round to her way of thinking with her soft voice and reassuring tone. Once Reepicheep walked through the door pursuing the healer Susan slide out her bed, dressed in a white silk nightgown and began to pace in the elegant way I wasn't really able to do. I'd tried to be as grown up a Susan but my hips didn't move like hers did, if I tried to make them rock I just looked silly and if I tried to glide my feet got tangled in the hem of my dress and I fell over. I wasn't ladylike enough to keep my calves hidden let alone my ankles but Susan assured me it would all come with age and reminded me that I was really just thirteen years old.  
"What happened Susan, why did they call me?" She looked down at her feet then up at the narrow glass window before she spoke, her gaze remaining on the window,  
"They thought I might have been poisoned." She sounded so calm, so Queenly but it wasn't a nice thing to hear. My sister had been poisoned- or they thought she had. Why would anyone want I poison my sister, she had always been adored as the high Queen but this, this was assassination.  
"But why Susan, what for, why would they want to do that to you?"  
She laid her hand against her stomach- something she'd been doing much more often recently- and looked at me, a tiny hint of her favourite knowing smile, the smile that said I didn't quite understand yet.  
"Because,Lu, the Telmarines didn't want a Narnian Queen so they really won't want a narnian heir- let along if its a boy."  
My head rewind end and played back what was happening. I grinned, grinned beyond what I knew was possible. Susan was, she was going to have a baby, a real baby!  
"Oh, oh Susan!" I squealed rushing over to hug my sister she laughed, a light warning to be careful. I'd forgotten that meant she was fragile, it was quite easy for babies to die before they were born. A neighbour of ours back in London lost her baby during an air raid, Mum had to help the tiny dead child into the world while Susan held her hand. Peter, Edmund and I had stayed in our own shelter during the birth while Mum and Susan helped. Susan had looked very ill when I saw her later, Mum had tried to comfort her but it was hard to comfort Susan in any situation she always had to work things out for herself.  
"Sorry," I smiled to go with my apology, pulling away from my sister so as not to hurt her baby.  
" I can't believe it," I whispered, looking down at Susan's stomach- not a hint of the baby was there yet. She was still as thin as ever.  
"No, it's alright, it feels strange doesn't it?"  
"That my sister is going to have a baby? I'm going to be an aunt! Of course it's a bit strange. Who else knows about it." Susan shook her head,  
"Just Peter." She said quietly.  
"So you haven't told Caspian yet?"  
"No, that's the reason you're here and Ed. It wouldn't be safe for me to go. I doubt the crew would be happy if I gave birth on the voyage. Peter's awful at keeping secrets and so by the time they return he will know. And Ed was kept back for protection and incase I am unable to keep up with councils and courts and all sorts as the time comes."  
Her pale skin was set with a smug smile as she explained her plans to me. Her arms folded across her chest in defiance, a plan that fell through when she winced slightly in pain and let her arms drop again.  
"I just hope Peter does tell, otherwise Caspian will get a shock!" I laughed, Susan joining in.  
"Yes, I can just picture his face now!"  
"When will the baby be born Susan?" I asked, all joking laid aside. She shook her head,  
"You know I can't be certain, whatever I say it's only my  
rough-"  
"Yes I know all that, you forget how old I am!" I groaned, exasperated. She smiled and nodded once, "your right I do forget. Your still just my baby sister- but there's another baby to take your place. He or she will be here in roughly five months time."  
My eyes shot straight to her stomach. She couldn't be, there wasn't even a hint, yes her nightgown was loose but her dresses, every gown she owned fitted tight to her body. I'd seen neighbours and relatives and a school matron have babies and, well they all looked a little rounder than before by this time. Susan had nothing.  
She seemed to understand what I meant and gently rubbed the skin a little under her belly button.  
" I am a little bigger, but not that anyone could notice if they didn't know. One of the healers- I think it was Tibberus- noticed straight away. She says this month and the next and it will be very clear." I laughed again, trying to picture my sister like that. I simply couldn't,  
" I just can't see it!" I shrugged explaining my laughter when Susan gave me an odd look.  
"Neither can I." Her voice was faint, distant, she sat back down onto her bed with a little difficulty- like she wasn't sure if her stomach was going to cooperate or reincarnate her super once more.  
"Are you scared?" I asked softly,  
Susan looked at the floor then the window. She was awful at showing her emotions, kept everything hidden, maybe it was the baby blues or something but the tears in her eyes were clear even if she tried not to show it.  
Eventually she looked at me, a tiny whimper coming from her as the first tear slid over her red cheeks. She nodded three quick little nods.  
"Oh Su," I smiled going to put my arms around her. It was a very rare thing to comfort my older sister but I hoped she always knew I was there got her.

(Susan)  
I was scared, I was more than scared. A baby a real live baby was in my body, it was all down to me to look after it. It, I knew the history, I'd done the Tudors at school, yes things were different here but there ha to be pressure I already felt the eagerness for a son. I suspected my husband wouldn't mind too much whether he had a son or daughter but I could feel the want of my people even though they didn't even know. I also felt the pressure from the people that weren't really mine, the telmarines. I had tried with the wedding. We had twenty four children, six boys and six girls from each country but still there were many people who gave me looks of horror and disappointment. Some would hope I could honour the telmar traditions by having a son as my firstborn, they would be horrified if I continued Narnian tradition and let a firstborn daughter be heir to the throne. I didn't know what to want but I knew I wanted my Mum.  
I knew it was her job to teach me everything about this experience, her job to laugh and blush when the awful topic of inner body workings came up again. She was the one that would say 'don't scream Susan, put the effort where it needs to be' as I'd hear her say to our neighbour on that awful day when she lost her baby. I needed to have her with my but she wasn't here. I had I be a big girl.

(Edmund)  
It was arbout a month after Peter and Caspian had left on their journey when things started to be a little weird.  
I hadn't exactly been pleased that I couldn't go with them, it wasn't fair it had already all been planned and we were all going and then SUSAN couldn't go for some reason so I had to stay too. It wasn't fair Peter always had to do all the things he considered dangerous. So he and Caspian were away seeing unseen islands and I was stuck in councils and meetings with my sisters. I didn't even know why we had to stay behind but it was obviously Susan'a fault. That was what I thought at first.  
Then, Susan was... different. She looked pale and thin and she wasn't ever hungry, she had dark shadows under her eyes like she was sick. She came down one night to the common room with Lucy and she looked like she'd been crying. I wasn't frustrated any more, I was worried. I asked Lucy if Susan was going to be ok and she'd smiled and rolled her eyes, 'oh Edmund! Of course she's going to be alright.' Her comment confused me but I started to think. It was a while later that I understood why Susan was sick. I'd not seen the lying smile used to hide her tears for a while, I'd not heard of her throwing up either. She had begun to eat more and she seemed more alive though still pale. I presumed she'd recovered and then I noticed something else. Susan was... fatter than she used to be. The belt she always wore sling over her hips and fastened loosely showed it all. Her belly was much rounder and the dress she was wearing a bit tighter.  
I knew that she was married to Caspian and obviously I knew that when you were married to someone you loved you... Ugh. You, well you did IT. So, could that mean that Susan was pregnant. I knew I couldn't ever ask her, that would be really bad for me if it turned out that she wasn't. But she did kind of look it, would she know if she was- no she would know because girls (particularly Susan!) get very grumpy around the same time each month and that was- or so mum said- part of how she would know if she was pregnant. To be honest all I got was that mum excused Susan's grumpiness around that time and she got away with murder because it was her 'time of month' Peter and I just got told to leave her be even if she'd annoyed us! But that was besides the point. More on it was that my sister might be about to have a baby.  
Now that was weird. My sister, a baby. But I didn't want to think about it too much in case bad pictures of my sister and a man I almost thought of as a brother doing things I did not need to know about!  
Another few weeks and I knew I was right. She was my sister and all but I still knew she was beautiful, my sister had the figure of a girl on the cover of one of the magazines I knew Peter had hidden under his bed. Now she had quite a little pot belly on her, she masked it with a new wardrobe, her clothes were made much looser without a waist. To make room as her stomach expanded even more. She'd never perked up after her illness, she never really left it, she was still pail with no appetite.  
I'd seen her speaking to a female healer again- a half fawn, half human names Tibberus. Tibberus had been trying to persuade Susan that she must keep trying to eat, her quizzed her on her eating habits, asking about any new favourites.  
She'd taken to appearing in the mornings for councils and then after lunchtime she would excuse herself and go to rest in her chambers till at least four in the evening. I was also aware that Lucy knew. She had to because she was always trying to help Susan, always asking if she needed anything and did she feel any better today- it was as if she thought she could will the baby to come sooner if she was nice to its bearer.  
Eventually I gave up and decided I'd have to ask Susan, otherwise I might not know until she was screaming and telling me the baby was coming. I decided I could wait till the morning was over and then catch her once she'd gone to rest. It wasn't going to be easy really, I could already feel the slap across my cheek for being cheeky. But my plan fell in line perfectly. Susan disappeared as always just as lunch was being cleared. A satyr, the lead chef who'd been on leave came into the room just before she left. Yohar bowed politely before speaking to Susan quietly, he offered congratulations and then asked her if there were anything he could alter in the menu for her health, any smells that automatically turned her stomach. That delayed Susan leaving for a while ad they nattered about what might help Susan's sickness and what Yohar said had helped his wife's health when she expected their twins. Eventually Susan left and I managed to sneak away a moment or two later, saying I was going to the library- I even walked past it to make my plan even easier to believe. I knocked on her door and heard a very weary invitation in, Susan sounded more exhausted than before, probably because she was out of earshot of the servants.  
When I opened the door she was sitting on her bed trying to reach round and undo the ties on the back of her dress. She sighed, finally getting the knot out and pulling at the threads to loosen them. It was as is her spine just collapsed and became soft. She looked at me with glazed eyes.  
"Do you mind if I take this off?" She asked, speaking to me for the first time. I shook my head,  
"Go ahead." She pulled the bright red dress up over her head and sat in a white underdress instead.  
Wow, she was much bigger than she looked. She followed my gaze and smiled at her ballooned stomach. She gave the top plane a little fond pat, her hand settling there as she looked back at me.  
"Su," I started, biting the bullet, "you are, ugh, you know...umm,"  
"Pregnant?" She laughed.  
"Oh Ed, I did try to tell you, of course I did. I never meant for it to get to this!" Her hands illustrated, rubbing right over the whole of her stomach.  
"So, Caspian-,"  
"I really don't think you want to go down that avenue Edmund."  
"Oh Susan! I didn't mean it like that! Ugh! I meant, how did you get him to leave knowing about, ugh, it," I nodded to her stomach. It was kind of hypnotising, something about the perfection in the shape, she had a mathematically accurate sphere growing out of her and it didn't help that she wouldn't stop stroking it, as if she was hypnotised by the touch.  
"That's because I didn't- he doesn't know." She said. So not only had she not told me, she hadn't told her own husband- the baby's Dad (well at least I hoped he was!)  
"What!" I asked, totally astounded. Susan laughed again,  
"He might know by now, i told Peter and we all know what he's like."  
I nodded , Peter could never keep a secret, he didn't gossip he just let things slip easily.  
"Because your right, Caspian would never have gone had he known."  
A small silence fell, I wasn't a very touchy type but I needed to ask- I was worried about her. I sat down beside her, glancing at the stone floor.  
"But, you are going to be ok aren't you?" I looked at her again, here eyes were windows straight into her soul. Her eyes were clear only honesty when she agreed, smiling gently.  
"I'm fine it's all normal. Mum had it really bad when she had Lucy,"  
"Yeah?"  
"Mmhmm, she said she knew Lucy was going to be a URL because she was very ill when she had me but not near as much with you it Peter."  
"So it's a girl then?"  
"So mum would say."  
She smiled sadly in the memory of Mum and her sweet temperament, looking down at the top of her little bump as if it reminded her of Mum even more.  
"I wish she could be here when the baby comes along,"  
I hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder, comforting was her thing, not mine and well I wasn't the easiest thing to know what to do.  
She smiled, gratefully at my gesture and slowly wrapped her arms around me, hugging me to her, squeezing me against her belly.  
"Ugh, Su, your squishing me,"  
He rolled her eyes,  
"Oh Edmund, just you wait, this," she paused to pat her stomach once more before she continued,  
"Is only the beginning." She laughed but let me go at last.  
"You say the beginning as in, when's the end- when'll you... Pop?"  
Susan couldn't help herself, she really laughed, her eyes squeezed together, it had been a while since she'd laughed properly.  
"Oh Ed, I could just see that!" She giggled,  
"I just hope that wasn't literal!"  
I could picture it too, Susan like a ballon being blown up until someone too a pin to her and all of a sudden there was a baby.  
I laughed too, slightly embarrassed.  
"Ed, your cheeks are more red than mine,"  
"But really, Susan, when." I masked my embarassment as best I could by covering it with another matter. She nodded, losing her laughter in one nod.  
"Well, Tibberus says that the feelings in my stomach I've been getting, say around January."  
"What feelings?" I asked, even though I wasn't sure I really wanted to know.  
"There had to describe, it's like a tingling but really far in. It's the baby moving around that made it certain,"  
"Certain?"  
Susan raised an eyebrow, looking straight at me,  
"You really want to know?"  
"Probably not." She laughed just as there was a knock at the door,  
"Enter," Susan called not moving from her bed but I stood up, not wanting to be seen hugging my sister.  
Tibberus entered, smiling when she saw Susan sitting on her bed,  
"I'm glad to see you majesty resting," Tibberus smiled, dropping a quick curtesy to Susan before turning and doing the same to me.  
" yes, I've tried to find some time for myself," my sister replied. Tibberus nodded walking over,  
"May I?" She asked standing over Susan, she nodded and sat down beside her. Tibberus ran her hands across Susan's stomach, pressing lightly in places. She removed her hands and nodded- speaking some kind of code language to her, something only girls knew.  
I stood feeling a little awkward, not sure if I should watch the healer at work or if this was going to be personal but Tibberus would have said I should go if that was the case. Tibberus glanced at me and said that if there was anything 'From girl-to-girl' to ask than she was just to call.  
She then relayed a message, saying that a centaur by the name of Ashgrow wished to speak with her,  
"Do you know what for?" I asked. Susan added in before Tibberus could reply,  
"Ashgrow has predicted the birth and the gender of the baby."  
"Oh."

(Peter)  
"Ugh, glad that's over," Caspian sighed, re-sheafing his newly cleaned sword and leaning against the cliff edge, breathing hard.  
"Slaves," I laughed shaking my head- my own breathing still of.  
"You've never vain across such before?" Drinian, the Treader's captain, queried.  
I shook my head, slavery was something I'd never seen before but then the population of the Lone Islands had more than doubled since we came that way in the second year of our reign. All four of us had made the journey and it felt strange without them. I didn't have Edmund's quiet complaint or his cheeky tricks, we didn't have Lucy's sense of adventure and the essence of beauty and wonder she saw in everything. And Susan, well she wasn't walking round telling people to eat with their mouths shut, but she wasn't giving comforting hugs either.  
I wondered how she was, she'd became pail and sickly looking just as we left and I hoped she wouldn't have it as bad as our Mum did. I can still remember Susan creeping into my bed early one morning when she was around four, she'd whispered to me that Mummy was sick- she's heard her. And I sighed, being old enough to remember what happened eighteen months before, I had rolled my eyes, hugging my sister and said,  
"Maybe because she's going to have Another baby!" I'd complained to my- then blonde- little sister.  
"Oh not again, Edmunds bad enough, he always takes my things!" She scowled.  
"I'm never ever having a baby Peter!"  
I smiled at the memory, how things had changed, and they hadn't taken long either- in both senses, changing her mind and becoming pregnant.  
It had been a month since we left, she'd be showing by now. I wondered if they were managing to keep Narnia in check, by the time we returned Ed would be in charge, Susan being too far along to take charge. I hoped everything went well, but Narnia wasn't a hard country to run.  
Back on board the ship Caspian was quiet- as strange as it felt I tried to sympathise that he was missing my sister. He was playing with her school tie, wrapping it through his fingers as we sat in the cabin. I had to tell him, he was missing her so much, much more than I was, of course I loved Susan but she could be... Very Susan-esque at times. She was just too much of a parent to be a child.  
" I wonder how Susan'a coping," I staged, trying to make my comment sound open and general. Caspian looked up shyly from the strip of material he held in his hands,  
"Oh, she'll cope Peter, she may never have run a kingdom before but she is a good learner, and a good teacher," he smiled fondly when he spoke about her- it was a bit sickening for me but if I made Susan happy then I couldn't judge. It wasn't my job to shove her into marrying someone over alliance, I'd already learnt from that mistake. I knew I went too far sometimes, I'd felt the need to look after her since our third year of reign in Narnia. I'd walked into her room without knocking to find it was a bad idea and she'd just cane out of the bath. She'd instantly grabbed a throw blanket to cover herself with one hand and thrown something at me with the other.  
That was when I saw Susan was really growing up, she was a woman now. She never really behave like a child after that, being back in England was tough. Then coming back just as hard. Susan had pointed out later how I wasn't as annoyed with Caspian after the castle raid as I showed, I was annoyed with him because I could see what he did to Su. As well as her always taking his side, she smiled and fixed her appearance. I hated it, just couldn't do it. Till I saw them riding back together, I saw the way she sat close, her arms around his waist on Destrier's back. And then the first time I saw them kiss. I had to let Susan leave, I had to let her be the woman she was- even if I still needed her to be the girl.  
" oh I don't mean on her abilities to rule, I was thinking more that she was quite delicate when we left her," I saw Caspian's eyes glisten with panic, this was both my expectation and my plan.  
"What do you mean delicate! She is sick? Is that why she didn't come with us, is she very ill?" His slightly tanned skin tone suddenly went light, he was panicking a lot more than I'd expected him to.  
"Oh Peter, she will be ok? I had thought she seemed different, for- a few months she'd been quiet and oh, I didn't even really notice, oh dear Aslan what if something's very wrong and-"  
"Cas-"  
"What if she doesn't revovery, she must've been ill for-"  
"Caspian!"  
"For ages and-"  
"Caspian, you're a Father!"  
That shut him up. He looked at me and blinked, mouth shut. Eventually he laughed, embarrassed,  
"Susan's expecting," I smiled,  
"Really?"came Caspian's reply, I rolled my eyes,  
"Of course really, I wouldn't have said it otherwise."  
He looked down, school tie still wrapped around his wrists.  
"Wow," he whispered, "I hadn't thought it would happen so-"  
"Quickly,"I interrupted, "yes Caspian, do not want to think about that!"  
He looked up, grinning, "I got back at you though, after that your lucky you didn't get details."  
"Ok, ok, fair enough, there are some things about my sister's life I don't need to know about." Caspian laughed,  
"It is easy to forget you are all related, not that that was one of those times, but you are all so different,"  
I shrugged, we probably were, I just never really noticed.  
"So, Susan expected me to return and not know, but she'll be...," he mimicked the shape of her stomach with his hands, not able to find the words to express his thoughts.  
"Well yes, she said she'd already seen a difference when we left,"  
Caspian looked up, concentrating, trying to think whether he'd seen a difference in her.  
"I've seen nothing, no changes in her physic just in her behaviour." He commented looking back at me, the he thought again.  
" but if, if it was visible when we left, will she even still be with child when we get back?" He was worried now, his head fell into his hands against the table he sat at. A real look of despair covered his face, whatever had came over him, it was bad he was really scared.  
After a few moment's of silence Caspian spoke, his voice wore the same tone as his posture.  
"My Mother died during my birth. My professor told me later that she had predictions done by a real stargazer. She was told to prepare a wet nurse for me, that a disagreement in her blood would kill her. My Father and I had blood different from my Mother in some way the stargazer could not explain. If the same happens- I'd never expected she would take so quickly, it was what she wanted though, It took years for my aunt, I could never have thought she would take like that- if the same were to happen; Susan would die.

(A/N) well this was a short story, and it got longer and longer so I've had to do more than one chapter. I hope people read it and enjoy it- you know where the comment box is!


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N) wow! I hadn't expected so much response and people watching this! You have my thanks.(Aslan referance) I would like to say two things, please take a look at my other story Believe- I find it a lot harder to write and could seriously do with some encouragement! And if you wouldn't minrepairing some more reviews down I'd love it! I want thoughts on baby names!

(Susan)

Two months. It had been two months since they left and it was getting difficult. I was tiered all the time, something felt wrong and they say a mothers instinct- even an expectant one- is never wrong.  
It had been a bad start, she was predicted a girl. I bore the future Queen, which I should have felt I could celebrate but I didn't. I was disappointed, and a bit scared. I needed a son, I needed to keep all my people happy and with word of an uprising in Owl wood it wasn't proving easy. There were so many things going wrong under my watch.  
I sighed, lying flat on my bed my back clicking as the pressure released on my spine and my feet. They were all swollen, my ankles puffed up so my calves flowed straight into my heels. I couldn't believe my Mum had coped so well with this. And she had me and Peter and Ed as well. It hurt so much, and I was so, so tiered, I had no idea how Mum had ran around after Edmund and coped with me and Peter arguing. And me? I couldn't even cope with the day-to-day life I'd had for a good while.  
The silver chain round my neck slid out from the neckline of my dress and down my skin towards my chin. The chain had the tiniest links I'd ever seen and had a small tear drop shaped diamond on the end. A present. Traditions went that a newly married man should give a gift-usually jewellery- to his new wife on the morning after their wedding, as Caspian had explained it was meant as a sort of compensation with him having just taken her virtue. I remembered him puting it on me, I was barely awake when I felt him drape it across my bare skin, dragging the two ends around my neck. He'd used his nose to push my hair away from my neck, making me shiver delicately from his very gentle touch. Nothing was said, we didn't need any words just lay dozing in each others arms basking in the aftermath of the most life changing twenty four hours.  
It was so magical, so amazing and now I should have been feeling the same, the magic and surreality. But I felt none of that. I was yet to spend any time enjoying it, enjoying being pregnant. I hadn't even thought about the baby really, I had no name ideas, I had no drive to go out and find little toys and trinkets and clothes for my newborn. That worried me too, so many worries. I lay looking at the thing that had taken over my body, I felt a little offended that she'd stollen my figure.  
There had been worse news, news I felt I was already grieving over. Ash had told me more than that a little girl was within me, she'd told me my little girl was my only child. A problem with blood, that's what she'd said, would mean we could not successfully have more children. I would never have a baby boy, never give Narnia a new king. I felt I'd failed, I'd failed Narnia's future, my family and I'd failed Caspian- what good was I to him if I could not give him what a Queen was supposed to give?  
I knew I shouldn't think like that, I knew it was silly, my King would always love me, no matter whether I gave him a son or not, still I doubted.  
The others- Edmund, Lucy, any of the servant body- didn't know I was expecting a little girl. They weren't aware of the pain my back and feet felt nor the strange sharp headaches I'd began to feel. I was a bit worried actually, maybe it was a bit more than the average pregnancy symptoms, more than what my Mum had experienced. Maybe I was ill; maybe our baby was ill.  
I couldn't go bothering people, it was probably nothing after all and I would just be making a fuss. Instead of worry I sat and watched the shape of my belly contort and morph like an alien living on the moon. I was humongous! Seriously I was sure that child was secretly eating extra helpings, I felt so much bigger than my Mum or Sandra ( a friend I'd met in America, my age but with a big problem her parents didn't know about) had been. I was sure it all came down to my lack of sleep, I was always tiered these days and I hadn't really slept well since the King's had left. Even though, as was tradition in this country, Caspian and I had separate quarters we hadn't spent a night apart since the wedding- I supposed I missed his warmth.  
Who was I trying to kid I missed far more than his warmth, I missed his voice with his odd accent, I missed his clumsiness, I missed his kisses and his sweeping glances, I felt a little alone without it.  
I missed my prince.  
My eyes circled the lavish room and caught sight of my personal guard sitting on top of the dressing table. Reepicheep took his duties very seriously, seriously to the point it was sweet- not that I'd have ever told him that. He stood surveying the room as I lay feeling like a tonne of rock was holding me flat to my bed.  
I remembered his horror the first time he'd realised he had to stay with me while I bathed as well, I swore he blushed at the thought. It felt odd to me but many of the Narnians alive now were in awe of me and my family, we were legends they'd dreamed of while growing up. The would call on Peter to destroy the demons under their beds, Edmund for advice, Lucy for courage and me if they simply needed a hug. In fact I'd been told by Doctor Cornelious that a much younger Caspian had always pined for information on myself, he says that I was I fact the first girl he appeared sweet on even though at first all he knew of me was what could be see in paintings, now? Well now he knew everything there was to know, every smell and every texture.  
Reepicheep was no different from my young king, he was very awed by us and had not stopped expressing how honoured he was to be serving me.  
"Reepicheep," I called, shoving myself over from my back onto my side-which was really no different from trying to roll a square bolder- so I could face him properly.  
"Yes, your highness," he bowed quickly,  
"Reep... We've talked about this!"  
One of the problems that had been caused by the years gone by was that the younger generations were insistent on chivalry, a chivalry that meant there had to be titles used.  
"Yes...Susan," he said slowly, shivering with the inappropriateness of what is made him say.  
"See Reep, it wasn't that hard was it?"  
"But your highness it is most inappropriate for me to speak with you in such a manor."  
"Who's in charge here Reepicheep?"  
"Why you are, of course?" He said quickly sounding a tad confused,  
"Well doesn't that mean I get to decide what you may and may not call me?"  
"Yes your majesty," the small mouse sighed, depleted. I raised a eyebrow at him,  
"Yes Susan, but might I call you Quern Susan, it would feel more appropriate."  
"You sound like Caspian," I commented. The knight must have heard a hint of sadness in my voice because his eyes became softer and he jumped down from his perch and came across towards me.  
"You miss him don't you Queen Susan?" I smiled softly but he still saw the sadness in my blue eye,  
"Yes I do miss him; greatly. Come, sit with me."  
"Oh, you majesty , I really shouldn't-."  
His comment was too late, I'd already picked him up with one hand and set him down about a foot away from my face. The mouse crouched into his version of a sitting position and watched me.  
"It, forgive me if I'm talking out of term, is a little odd to me that the birth of a human takes so much longer and you appear to suffer so much more Queen Susan,"  
"Yes, how long does it take for a litter of mice to be born?"  
"Around twenty days," I laughed twenty days would be fantastic- I could have had a family of seven or eight by this time. Job done.  
"Although they have many more than just one child at a time, I always found that rather peculiar,"  
"They don't always you know, sometimes they have two, or even three at a time."  
My mind went click just when I said that, my eyes went ping to my stomach. Oh, dear Aslan. I couldn't be, could I? Oh my, maybe that was why I was so much larger and had so little energy. Oh my what if I really was expecting twins; or triplets. It wasn't going to happen though, that was so rare and it didn't run in the family- not my family. That wasn't to say it didn't run in Caspian's though.  
"My Queen, are you alright?" Reepicheep sounded nervous, very nervous and I realised I must have blanked his conversation.  
"Sorry, I was... thinking,"  
"About the idea of birthing more than one child?"  
I nodded but the mouse said nothing more.  
"Your highness, I am incredibly sorry for interrupting you at this time but there is a matter you are needed to attend to."  
Susca stood at the door, she was the newest of our team of servants- though I grudged calling them that. She was also one of the very few Telmarine'a to have taken a role in our care. She was a little older than me and she had known the king since they were children. She also carried a resemblance in that she also carried her first child. Only the week before had I excused her from the need to curtesy to us, seeing she now struggled with the movement.  
"Yes, I'll come just now. If you'll help me up?" I laughed and Susca did as I'd joked instantly, offering her hand. She laughed when I shook my head,  
"I'll manage- just."  
"Glenstorm, what seems to be the problem?" I asked, catching the head of defence just as he returned to the castle. I had been instructed by Susca it was him I needed to see.  
"Your majesty," the centaur bowed, "I believe the matter may be better discussed inside, our best gossipers appear to be the silent ones. He meant the trees, the dryads were partial to whispering amongst themselves and I was sure I knew what the latest news was about.  
Glenstorm led me into his office, a room small in comparison to the centaur, which was just off the gates of the castle. He offered me a seat in the only chair in the room but I declined, it was a little intimidating being near someone so tall at the best of times.  
"There appears to have been some rumours spreading about your condition, my Queen. My first issue to address was on this matter, I would suggest you make an official announcement concerning the, ugh-" he was stuck for words, I'd never 'officially' told anyone I was expecting so all the palace staff were carefully tiptoeing around the subject. They knew, it was blatantly obvious of course they knew but they wouldn't say.  
"Yes Glenstorm, you may make an announcement that I am expecting, let the trees be aware they can spread the official news. Glenstorm nodded, a tiny smile on his face with relief that at last they could put it our in the open and talk about the coming child.  
"I wish that were all, but we are still receiving complaints from Owl wood, the revolt is getting more likely by the day."  
"We'll hold a council to decide what we should do. Have everyone necessary gather by four in the great hall.

(Caspian)  
What had I done? I shouldn't have let her entice me as she did. It should never have happened so soon. I'd expected years, maybe a whole decade with her before it came to this. We were too young, too good condition for her not to become pregnant when she did. That was what captain Drinian told me, we were too likely to successfully have a baby for it not to happen. Now her life lay flat along the line. I could, she could.  
Peter was a good man, telling me about Susan'a triumph over whooping cough as a two year old and that she had fought flu twice but the ailments he mentioned were not common tongue to me and it didn't help raise my confidence in the slightest, especially since his expression showed no real confidence. Susan was pale and my Nurse always said a pale person was easy to sicken, with her ice blue eyes my wife could not have looked any more the part in the superstition.  
Then I dreamed a horrible dream, the very night Peter explained Susan's condition. It was so bright and clear that I woke up with tears rolling off my cheeks and a damp pillow.  
I saw a clear patch of woodland, an area inhabited by the moss beds- the moss dryads preferred to travel as a clump. There was a large towering oak tree, roots raised from the ground at the centre of the dream. The tree'a dryad sat in a formation of leaves cradling someone's head. I then saw that the roots were cradling the person. My whole body froze and a feeling of unruly spurt of adrenaline flew through my body,creating the most awful fuzzy feeling, like a furry caterpillar had just crawled inside my gut and was tickling everything around it.  
My Queen lay in the tangled roots of the tree. A deep scarlet wound on her forehead was pouring blood across her face matting her eyelashes together as the liquid dried dark. Her eyes were shut in a peaceful slumber but her head hung on her neck over a thick root, like it was suddenly too heavy. A chain male shirt lay half-on one of her arms, it was also streaked with the colour of blood. She wore no cloak and goosebumps stuck up on her chest before her skin disappeared into the neck of her dress. Her gown was made of a thick woollen material, a dress designed to protect from the cold but also would protect her briefly from any weapons. Her dress had a silk tie around the middle of her ribs, holding a shape to the garment, a shape normally built to her clothes but this wasn't and I eventually saw why.  
She looked very different from the girl I had left behind, she didn't look like a girl at all now. The material of the dress was stretched taught over her very swollen stomach. A ball grew under her skin so much larger than I'd expected it would be.  
The tree-spirit continued to watch over her, carefully guarding its Queen.  
She'd had her bow and quiver removed from her body, she looked so vulnerable lying there, like she was asleep. My mind wandered and I began to think, had Susan always been so pale, I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember how she normally looked, couldn't see her face in my mind. Something was making me unable to visualise, I could vaguely remember the icy colour of her sharp but soft eyes, vaguely see her lightly pink lips, her dark, soft, sweet-smelling hair. Did she look like her? Was she still my Susan? I couldn't remember.  
She wasn't even moving, she lay there, blood pouring from the deep wound in her head. Between her eyes. A shot between the eyes could kill someone.  
"NO!" I screamed almost falling out of my hammock.

(Edmund)  
"No, Susan you can't go, don't be stupid!"  
"Why not Ed? Why should I have to stay here?"  
"Susan! Your about to have a baby! How can you even think about joining us? You should be sitting by the fire knitting not dressing in chain male and heading off to battle."  
"Well if I could leave the baby with Lucy, get her to keep it warm and fed for a while then I will -just go get me a knife. " she said sarcastically before she exploded again,  
"Edmund I can't just not do it, I have to look after my people- our people- it's my job to make sure everyone is happy and well and that means I put myself second!"  
"Why do you have to turn into Peter? I thought you were better than that Su, what happens if you lose the baby, what if it dies? That would damage the people more than you not fighting a battle. Think about it Susan,"  
She began another descent of anger but before any words left her mouth a silent scream drifted out instead like a breathe of smoke from a dragon. Her face contorted in pain and her hand went to her stomach.  
"Susan!" I reached forward to help her but she stepped back from my hand.  
"I'm fine!" She snapped, though pain still showed on her face, before she waddled of down the corridor. I watched her go, the speed in her step easily showing her fury. Susan was normally so sensible, so logical and here she was putting the life of her baby baby in danger and I knew she was going to do it. Susan was not only the most sensible member of our family but the most stubborn too, now that she'd made her mind up I knew there was nothing I could do to stop her.  
Seeing her a few days later dressed in a thick, woollen dress and a long chain male shirt that didn't belong to her, I knew she'd definitely made the wrong decision. Only a week before she'd sat, looking a little embarrassed as one of the female centaurs, a sage had ran her hands in blessing over her belly. She'd been adorned with gifts and blessings for the health of herself and her unborn kid, the people of Narnia were delighted by the news, so excited and joyous that they would have an heir. The Narnians and the Narnines- the name given to the Telmarines who had remained faithful, or had turned faithful to Narnia- believed this baby, child of the saviour of Narnia AND one of the prophecy four would bring about an age better than think Susan could be throwing it away.  
I'd watched as a young squirrel had brought a present for her and she'd set the kid against her own belly, watched its Mum swell with pride as she carefully cradled the tot with one hand. The squirrel baby was only just able to walk and had been no bigger than Susan'a thumb. She'd looked every bit the mother, the mother she always was. Mum used to say that when Lucy was born it was serious for Susan and she started copying everything on her the point the biggest of the three got threatened with a slipper for bad behaviour. She'd always been our substitute Mum, now she could be a real one and she was throwing that chance away.  
"Ready Ed?" She smiled faintly on the morning of the battle, bow in hand, arm guard in place; battle ready. Her smile was false, her cheeks were still deathly pale and I knew there had been worries over pain she was feeling in her back and stomach. Tibberus had called on the help of another midwife from up towards Ettinsmoor for a second opinion on my sisters health. Lucy was worried, I was worried but Susan was above it all. She didn't even seem to notice how ill she was, how dangerous it was for her to be wandering let alone being as active as a battle. If Tibberus didn't know what she was dealing with then no body could help Susan and she would not let anyone help her anyway.  
"Su-,"I began but she shook her head.  
"Edmund I'm coming with you."  
"Su, please see sense." She turned and walked off to speak to Glenstorm. There was nothing I could do.

(Caspian)  
The dream was not only a dream. My mother used to dream like that also. She had known she was to have a son, with waved hair and chocolate eyes. The week which had been her last she had seen me as a young man, dressed in armour, she saw me as a good man, those were her exact words. 'My little Caspian is a good man.'  
Perhaps I had my mother's gift.  
"Caspian?" Peter'a worried voice came across the table as he sat down opposite, kettle in his hand. He poured tea into my mug and his own. Tea; Susan liked tea.  
"Are you alright?" He asked again, placing the hot metal kettle on the tabletop.  
"I'm worried."  
"About Su," he nodded biting into a piece of toast, "she'll be fine Caspian, she wouldn't do anything intentionally stupid."  
"But that's just it. Peter I had a dream and my mother used to have dreams of a telling sort. She had the dreams of a soothsayer and I think I may have just inherited that gift."  
Peter watched me, listening intently to every word though I didn't think he believed them.  
" I saw her, an oak tree had her cradled in its roots. Her face was covered in blood and she had chain male and her quiver had been removed. She had her eyes shut and she looked so pale. Her body was all swollen- clearly with child. Oh Peter, she looked. She looked." I couldn't bring myself to say that fate-altering 'D' word.


	3. Chapter 3

(Susan)  
"Ow!" I yelped sitting up and feeling the room sway around me, I lost my balance and fell back a little, my hand touching a mattress under me. My vision came back to me slowly, though every object seemed to have a ghostly outline.  
"Oh, no your majesty you must lie still!" It was the gentle but shrill voice of Susca and her hands that pushed me back gently. I looked up at her to discover she only had one eye, my vision slurred again and she had two noses. When she place my head delicately against my pillow her face began to slowly perceive normality once more. I watched her through half blind eyes and was shocked to see her belly still jutted out in front of her, she was still very heavy, still to give birth and yet she had been going a lot longer than I had. The poor girl had probably been called to tend to me even though she should be settled at home, saving her energy for the birth of a new baby.  
"Susca,"I spoke, croaking through at least me tongue was better than my eyes, "You shouldn't be here, if I don't need the tendence of a healer then I'm sure Lucy can help me."  
"I can't leave you, his highness King Peter forbid me to leave you until they returned."  
"But if Peter had known you were expecting he would never have said it, oh. I wish my stupid brother would learn to ask before doing things for me."  
"He weren't to know and-." Susca stopped suddenly, holding her tongue as if she was going to say something too bold for her position.  
"And.." I pressed her to answer.  
"Well, the last time your majesty tried to do something without the kings guidance, you ended up hurt quite badly. Maybe it would be best for King Peter to step in to help. Your mind can sometimes be affected by a coming child, at least those are the words of my mother. If you will excuse me, my lady,"  
"Yes, you are excused." I didn't need to ask her why she wished to be excused- babies seemed to have a habit of making bladders over active. I knew exactly how she felt! After a moment or two I became very tired again, slowly drifting off towards the dull pain in my head, the sort of pain that came with a cold. I knew it was worse, I felt dizzy due to concusion. The cause of the concusion I didn't know but I felt so tired, too tired to care. I just let my head flop onto the pillow, legs frogged out under the canopy of a nightie and the sheets on the bed. My hand curled around the underside of my bump while the other played with my hair- a habit I aquired as a baby- and I drifted blissfully into the world of sleep.

(Peter)  
My heart stopped when I saw the spread wings of Albernan approach the Dawn Treader. The large albatross was known to be Cair Paravel's greatest messenger because of his speed in flight. Only one thought came through when I saw the white bottom to his wings. Susan. It was too soon, I found myself counting meaningless days, I had no idea when she and Caspian had... Ugh! It didn't take much to realise there was a reason I didn't know but surely, we hadn't reached that far from the island of those little dufflepuds yet, if Susan had been due sooner she would never have sent us away, she thought we had a chance in being home before she had the baby. It had to be too soon.  
Or perhaps the uprising, Edmund. Was it Ed? What if he's been injured badly or even, oh dear Aslan what if he'd been killed because Caspian and I hadn't been there to help out. Yeah my little brother was strong and clever and witty but he was still younger and less wise, not used to taking care of a country, with Susan the way she was he was almost without help.  
Albernan landed on the deck before I could consider Lucy in my thoughts, though I knew both Edmund and Susan would do anything for their baby sister but with Susan'a health compromised and the chance Edmund was away from home...  
"Your Highness, I come bearing grave news," Albernan began just as The door to the lower deck opened and Caspian walked out to join us. He saw Albernan and I could almost see the word Susan being screamed inside his head with panic.  
"Albernan,"he nodded, keeping his expression as calm as he could. One of the hardest duties of a king, we were not supposed to show emotion, even in horrible situations.  
"I'm terribly sorry, the uprising in Owl Wood needed tendence. The casualties were substantial but not too bad in general.  
"Unfortunately, her majesty insisted on helping with the battle. A dryad's account says she accidentally knocked herself out, she had remained unconcious for three days when I left."  
Nothing was said for a long time, I didn't know what to say, what to think. Oh Susan. What had she gone and done to herself.  
"But why was the fire flower cordial not used?" I snapped, only realising afterwards that I had been harsh, Albernan was only the messenger.  
"Tibberus reports that the cordial has taken no effect because the child to come takes all her sustenance."  
So the cordial hadn't even got to Su, that kid- my niece or nephew- was acting like a real little Telmarine, taking what did not belong to it. She had to heal naturally.  
"Albernan, how are the winds?"  
Caspian asked suddenly, his voice turned to solid concrete. He depended on that hard edge to keep his real emotions at bay. I knew inside he was already crying like a lost child.  
"They will be a great help on my return, flowing to my favour." He replied. Caspian'a voice remained cold and he replied in a way I should have expected but didn't.  
"Then we go back."  
"No." I was surprised by my own words, she was my sister yes, but we were so close. Liliandil, daughter of Ramandu, had told us we were close we just had to find the last of the seven lords and then we could go.  
"What do you mean no? Peter I'm not sure you heard what Albernan said Susan is in serious danger!"  
"We don't know that!" I snapped back. Caspian glared at me in utter disbelief as if I was really standing with Rhindon to Susan's throat rather than just saying we weren't returning home.  
"What is wrong with you? Drinian! We must turn back towards home!" Anger boiled in me briefly, who did he think he was? I grabbed hold of his arm, pulling him to look at me,  
"You'd do better to remember your place, you are and always will be under me Caspian. You forget who you are." The bubble of anger surrounding me burst suddenly and I felt like a school headmaster yelling at a first year. It reminded me of something he'd said before, how the way he felt about and towards my sister was beyond my comprehension. He was going through something I couldn't understand. I didn't feel any rush to make sure she was alright, I didn't feel like her life was actually in any danger- clearly Caspian felt very different. I suddenly felt very bad, very bad indeed for what I'd done.  
"If it takes us more than a week to find and retrieve lord Bren then we turn back, I promise."  
He nodded, still looking like a young boy, the son instead of the Father.

The thought of love stayed stuck in my head for a while, a long while. I was sitting on the deck, watching the sun go down over the dragons head at the ships own head. I had been thinking about it in the background since we left Ramandu's Island.  
We met his daughter, a star child- though she was no little girl- she had glistened with a blue light, her hair light golden and as long as Susan's. She was beautiful and since we'd seen her all I wanted to do was see her again, talk to her, make her a friend. Maybe there was more than that. I could not stop thinking about her, her life at Aslan's table, her childhood, who was her Mother? So much and it was so constant, maybe constant enough that I was unable to worry about my sister because of my thoughts on her.  
"It's a beautiful place isn't it?"  
Caspian's words made me jump, I hadn't even noticed him come across the deck.  
"The Ocean I mean. It is so vast and unexplored. So much yet to learn is out there." He said dreamily though I knew he was only trying to keep his mind off his wife. The question that had been simmering in my head almost as long as Liliandil had suddenly popped out my mouth, splattering clumsily into the air.  
"Caspian, what does it feel like to love someone?"  
His eyes were on me like a wasp, one eyebrow raised sheepishly. As if he had read my mind and knew exactly what was going on.  
"This could not have anything to do with a very beautiful daughter of Ramandu, could it?"  
A sudden heat in my face answered that question for him and he nodded once, looking out over the sea rather than at me.  
"Well, if I can say so without losing my head, you are not the best at tact when it comes to that young lady."  
"And you were when it came to Susan? Yeh, I'll believe tact when I see it. And please don't use the term young lady, in England that's a term used more to describe Lucy- unless you happen to be a grandfather."  
"Well you are around 1318 years of age..." He trailed of dodging a joking punch to the arm.  
"But-," there was now at I could bring myself to say it again so I could only hope that he would quit teasing and give some brother to brother advice, the type Edmund would be asking from me in a few years time.  
"I don't think I need to describe anything to you Peter, I think you are already aware that you do indeed love. I know you as a king and as a brother and you do not easily leave a sibling in need. At first I was shocked by your reply but now I think I understand our situation. We are both straining under the pull of our hearts."  
I felt awful, my thoughts on a girl I didn't even know were causing stupid issues to arise. We should have turned back, we should have went home to my family. He was right, ending our quest was not part of the deal I was really only in it to see Liliandil again. I knew he was still angry, still livid at me for what I'd decided. I'd been beyond stupid but it was too late now for Dark Island sat gloomy and large on the horizon.

(Susan)  
"Su?" The soft voice of my little sister pulled me from the confusing place between waking and sleeping. My eyes opened at the same time Lucy took hold of my hand, she jumped out her skin and laughed, her cheeks puffing out as she smiled.  
"We were so worried! We didn't know if you were going to wake up at all." Her smile vanished quickly with her last words, her concern so obvious deep within her blue eyes.  
I just shook my head, not sure what she expected me to say, was I sorry? I didn't really k ow because I didn't really know what had happened in the first place. I couldn't really remember much of the battle itself.  
"You don't remember do you?" Lucy said softly, she patted my hand softly, trying to comfort the confusing I was only just feeling.  
"A dryad told us you knocked yourself out, they didn't really see what happened but the string of your bow had snapped, they think it must have broke when you'd drawn it back and the ivory hit you over the head. You've got a huge cut, biggest I've ever seen. Tibberus tried to stitch it all back together but you had a fever too and you kept crying and rolling around in your sleep so we thought you were getting worse. You kept asking for Mum and Dad, and Caspian but then the next thing you'd say would make no sense at all. You were as bad as a drunk dwarf!" She laughed, ever animated as she told her story.  
"Why didn't you try to heal me though?" I was getting more confused the more she told me, why would they watch me so ill if we had the magic cordial to save me with?  
Lucy jumped straight back in, explaining the problem with the cordial and how all that they could do was watch on and pray that I would break the fever and wake. It must have been awful for them, they had to see me so ill. Susca's words came back to me, perhaps she was right my mind was all over the place, what was I thinking when I put two lives in danger, both me and the baby could have died, what would have happened to my family and, oh Aslan, to Caspian had that happened. I was stupid and mindless, I should have known far better than what I did, the baby inside me was playing with my mind. Edmund would e far better in charge, Edmund had tried to talk sense into me, he knew what he was doing. I wasn't the easiest at coming into the world of royalty , politics and war and treaties an amendments. This wasn't my place and I didn't need it. I had a home and a family and a baby on the way. There was only one way that I could put Edmund in charge and it should have been a big decision but Susca was right, I'd never been good at being Queen- I'd known that for years- but now I was worse than before. I knew it was the right thing, I would have to abdicate.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok I'd like to briefly say thank you to Evaline101, MCH, Trapped In Narnia, Narnia and Harry Potter 4 Ever and JohnCenaRkoFanForever for your comments and to EdmundPevensie for evermore, Kailaira, TrueRoseLove, dressmeupinstitches, foreverchocolate and moonlight fire xx for following this story, I could never have imagined the response I've got from this story! Thank you all so much.  
In response to your comment JohnCenaRkoFanForever it will be made clearer later why she will only ever have one baby and I do things like this because I like to make my stories much more realistic than normal, and that means no happy ever afters!  
And thank you to MCH the length and thought in your comment meant a lot to me, rarely do I get people reading my stories and puting muh into it.  
Also, to everyone, this story is getting longer than I'd originally meant it to and as strange as it might sound if there's anything you've ever wanted in one of these stories and never found or just something I've made you think up then please let me know! I have some stuff in my head but I'm not that great at it and I'm not a big fan- as you might've guessed- in retelling the Voyage of the Dawn Treader story so there is probably not going to be very much at all from the boys.  
Anyway thank you all so very much and keep up the amazing reviews you've given me!


	5. Chapter 5

(Edmund)  
It didn't take Susan too long to recover, the concusion she had but she wasn't the same. She didn't have the same drive she used to. I'd been advised she was just starting to get tired, she was six months and two weeks pregnant now but that didn't seem to be her problem. She was good at brooding over things and there was something on her mind, something bad. She was late for her first council after Tibberus had said it was safe for her to go back to daily duties. She had penguin waddled in about ten minutes later than usual, her balance still off more than usual. Tibberus had advised that she should use a cane to walk with since her balance had been bad after her injury but Susan was Susan and didn't do what she was told as usual.  
She sat through the council listening to the advice each member had to offer on the situation in Owl Wood but she wasn't really listening she sat stiffly in the throne that belonged to her husband- even if I didn't really consider Caspian my brother-in-law- and watched with glazed eyes. She didn't even notice as I closed the meeting, no further forward with the issue than we had been before, only ending up with an argument between Glenstorm and Reepicheep.  
"Susan," I called to her at the end, waving me hand in front of her, it took her a while to blink and swat at my hand,  
"Ed!"  
"Where have you been all morning?" I spoke down to her, hands on my hips like a newspaper cartoon.  
"What?" She said softly, very confused.  
"Well your head certainly wasn't in this room,"  
"Oh, yeh sorry. I'm just, my heads a little manic at the moment."  
"Well come on," I rolled my eyes turning to walk from the hall.  
"Uh... Ed?" Susan asked quietly, slowly holding her arms out for me.  
"I swear these armrests get closer together every week," she muttered as I gave her a little pull, helping her up in the awkward way she'd adapted which meant pushing her hips up first since her spine couldn't bend very far any more.  
"Ah cheer up Su, your not quite as bad as Mrs Baker yet." I laughed. Mrs Baker or Mrs Pudding was an extreemly large lady who lived near the local park at home. She thought we called her Mrs Pudding because before the war she was always handing out treats, in reality it was because she looked like a Christmas pudding.  
"Nah, the amount she thinned out with rationing I bet I am!"she huffed before going suddenly silent, a glare of pain licking her face as her skin bunched tightly together.  
"Su?"  
"I'm ok, I stood up too fast. The worlds got flashy white lights." She stood for a moment before it passed and her blue eyes opened up again.  
"Let's go," she said, her voice sounding sort of breathless.  
"If you say so penguin." I grinned to myself, quickly stepping out of the way of her hand.  
"Oi!" She exclaimed but she was laughing too much to keep up an angered demeanour.  
We walked down the corridor towards the dinning room in silence, it had taken a few weeks for us to find the shortcut without the guidance of Caspian who had lived here his entire life but we soon learnt the way. Susan broke the silence first.  
"Edmund. Am I a good Queen?"  
"What? Why wouldn't you be?"  
"No, don't treat me like a sister. Edmund if you were to go to Archenland and I was Queen there, what would you think of me?"  
That took some thought. Of course Susan had her faults, she was too kind, fell for anyone's sob stories. She was no general and she really couldn't care less for the petty behaviour of some while being oblivious to the behaviour that could endanger her life.  
She was the people's Queen, the one everyone wanted to see and talk to. She was the person who would fight beyond the death for what she believed in.  
What bothered me more was where that idea was from, where that notion that she might not be good at her job had came from.  
"But why do you want to know? You know the Narnians adore you, you know everyone listens and cares for you. We all know your strong when you need to be. Has someone brought it up?"  
She shook her head, her pace quickening a little in her discomfort. This meant that I'd got out the truth from her someone had been tapping ideas into her skull.  
"Oh no, it's just. It doesn't matter." And that was the end of the conversation.

"Sire," a small voice called to me when I got up from the table at lunch. Reepicheep moved away from the edge of Susan's skirt, she was engaged in a conversation with Lucy and didn't even notice. He looked back at Susan then at me again, silently asking for permission to leave her. I nodded and continued to walk from the room, the mouse knight at my side.  
"I have some concerns your majesty, about the Queen," the well-spoken mouse began, standing on his back legs as he continued along at my side. I said nothing, hoping he would continue.  
"I believe one of her ladies-in-waiting is causing her harm,"  
"What?" Reepicheep sighed in response to my question,  
"You see, your highness I am not entierly sure if the actions, or words rather, of Susca are intentionally there to hurt the Queen but they are causing her some mental pain, or so I believe. The Queen seems to have aquired the idea, as you have seen yourself, that she is useless to us all."  
I didn't have anything to say, I agreed with his concerns but Susca, she was always so kind and loyal for a telmarine.  
"There is other evidence to show that she may be in danger, when her bow was restrung it was made clear the old string had been weakened, for it has never faltered and snapped before so I hear. There had been a knife taken to the string."  
So someone was actually trying to endanger Susan? But why would they do that, Susan never did anyone any harm she was a nice person, the model of what most people would love as a daughter or a fairytale heroine, what could she do that would offend someone?  
"Your highness, there is a good chance the coming child could cause uprising and rivalry. The telmarines, those who stay true to their cause, want the boy in line to their thrown to be a strong fighter and a cruel man. The telmarines know that your sister is not the Queen they need for that to happen. The uprising in Owl Wood, the weakening of the bow string, possibly even Susca's behaviour, they're trying to weaken the Queen at least and at worst, Aslan forbid it, her death."  
"What do we do?" I asked, finding I had to admit I had no idea what should happen in a situation like this. Reepicheep sighed sadly, showing his age as he rarely did,  
"I don't know."  
(A/N) sorry this is so short but I've been thinking and I don't know what to do in VDT Edmund imagines the Kraken and that's why they face it in the waters of dark island but what would happen if Peter and Caspian were there? I'd really appreciate any help!  
Also I thought I'd be cruel and give you inside knowledge.. Hehe.  
Susan's symptoms, tierdness, dizziness, headaches, pain in her stomach, swelling- all normal symptoms right?  
Wrong, she doesn't know it because its not actually been discovered in England yet but Susan's suffering from preeclampsia, which if untreated can prove deadly for both mum and baby... Oh and merry Christmas everyone lol.  
Ps welcome my new readers, sorry I didn't have a chance to find your names before but you know who you are. :)


	6. Chapter 6

A/N I'm sorry that this is a bit shorter again but I wanted to start of the next chapter in a particular place, hope you enjoy it and thank you again for all the lovely reviews, please keep it up, it really makes my day better. Enjoy!

(Caspian)

Susan, Susan, Susan; her name continually flickerd through my brain, I couldn't stop it. All I could see was a image of her, lying motionless in a cushioned silk-lined coffin. I saw her skin white as the snow, her lips- naturally a coral colour- were the most vibrant part of her. Her hair was down, limp fingers of deep chocolate clinging to her shoulders. She wore a very simple dress, a white shroud really. The dress was fine silk, only just beyond the barrier of being see-through. The sleeves were tight to her wrists and the collar tight around her neck - too tight. She was still in the delicate condition I had unknowingly left her in, the long dress only just reaching her feet due to the swelling in her body.

Those thoughts haunted my every waking moment, and every sleeping one also. The island had been in sight for days but the winds were cruel, the drum had patterned rhythmically with the oars for over a day. The island already new my fears, not getting home to my wife being upmost.

I wondered how she was every second, trying to imagine how she would look and she she;d feel by now. Peter's rought estimate put her in her sixth month- he told me she would have nine in total. I wondered whether she was managing to organize the kingdom in her current condition. I remembered how the swelling in my aunt's belly had made things harder for her, how she had been weak and tired. I tried to imagine my Queen in the same way but it was hard, because it was so long since we said our woeful goodbyes; near three months since I'd tried desperatly to remember the tingle of our last kiss. I missed her more than I thought I would- we could have used her when Gael, the little stowaway was found. She was grieveing the mother who was lost to the slave traders, the young one needed Susan's maternal side to help her- though Peter gave enough jibes that I should be practising.

Peter, now that was another problem. He believed he was in love, who was I to say it was not the case but it really changed things. A petty, telmarine part fo my brain was already scared for the lives of my wife and child. Who was next in line to the throne if Peter were to marry and Liliandil to bear a child? I tried to push it back but it was so deep bred into me to think in such a way. Not only that but I worried about the course of action that would be taken now, how could I drag him away from Ramandu's Island once again.

The image of Susan was in my head once more.

I moved from my quarters, not caring that the dark clouds in the atmosphere of the island contained our greatest fears and greatest desires all in one go. I went to the main galley, the room heavily decorated with stories of old. The paintings brodered the space between the walls and the ceiling. I knew what my eyes were looking for before my mind had caught up. There she was, my Queen, in her youthful beauty, although older than I had ever known her. She smiled in the oil paint, her blue eyes glistening, she was safe and happy and that was the best I could remember as the darkness flowed down.

(Lucy)

"For goodness sake Susan! Your knocking more off the tree than your putting on it!" Edmund laughed as Susan's belly nudged the christmas tree once more, the tiny bells tinkling like mad between the needles. The tree was in the castle grounds and Edmund said it was probably at least fourteen foot tall, even Glenstorm couldn't reach the top. It was the first of December, we still awaited the return of Peter and Caspian. There journey was taking longer than we'd expected, Albernan had returned with news, he had told us the boys found themselves on another quest, he expressed Caspian's worry but said Peter had decided they must continue.

Susan had been upset by the news, she'd left the room straight after tears in her eyes. Barissa, my companion, had patted my arm and said it was ok, she said that sometimes a woman would get a bit weepy in her condition It was more though, I wasn't stupid I knew something was going on and I wasn't happy with not being told. I hated still being treated like a child at times. Edmund and Susan were definatly up to something and I knew it wasn't one of those 'adult conversations' like the one Peter had with Susan when she had announced her betrothal to Caspian. This wasn't something Susan would have to tell me when I was older. This was a normal secret- and I didn't know it.

(Peter)

"If I die here. Tell, tell Susan I love her and look after my child, make sure they never want for anything," Caspian spoke softly, sword held out in front of him as I matched his pose. The huge sea serpent, a Kraken no less, towered above us, the ship's mast lay in splintered through the middle aginst the deck. The sailors grabbing at ropes and trying desperatly to keep a hold of everything and not give the Dawn Treader over to the diving waves. The Kraken snarled viciously, its body ripped open to reveal only more sharp gaping fangs.

"And if I die, well, don't forget me."

"Never."

With one final roar of exasperation the green-blue monster charged down towards the deck with it's huge neck, claws grabbing underneath the ship's hull. We both split, running to oposite sides of the creature's neck, it retraced those moemnets as soon as it saw our plan. It turned straight for Caspian, as if knowing he had the most to lose.

"No!" I found myself yeling, rushed with adreniline I charged towards the beast, Rhindon thrust straight into it's neck. The Kraken screamed with rage, blood spurtung from it's neck. Rhindon stuck fast in between it's scales as it charged towards me, huge fangs slicing into the wooden deck. My heart pounded, hands still tryin to wrench the damn sword from the sea monster.

Its head whipped away from me and back towards my brother-in-law Caspian's own sword prodding into its head. The creature reared, throwing its head back up off the deck and disappearing under the waves for a brief lul before a deathening scream rose with the waves and the creature cracked through the wall of the ship.

The entire boat lurched sideways, I fell, feet and hands clawing at the wet wood as the whole ship fell on its side. The Kraken snapping hungrilly below. My fingernails scraped the wood as I fought to stay away from it's enormous mouth. Panic rising into my throat in the form of vomit, sailors dropped into the sea, screaming and swimming as rain lashed from the skys. Images of Titanic flashed before my eyes.

We were dead.

(Caspian)

Pain, agonizing pain shot through my arm, my fingers burned, an itchy fiery heat unlike any other. My whole being ached like flu stole my body. My eyes begged not to be opened but I knew they had to be. They stung hugely and I was blinded entierly by light at first. Then I saw rock and felt sand in my fingertips. It was a cave, a cave on the beach of an Island.

"Agh," I yelped, moving my fingertips, pain shot straight through my arm again, I turned my head which was heavy with fever, and saw a bandage tight on my arm from elbow to fingertips. The rough white bandages already stained by dark blood. I wore no shirt yet I wasn't in the least bit cold, the sand and the sun licking the rock walls of the cave left me feeling warm.

I almost jumped up when I remembered. The Kraken, The Dawn Treader, drowning, pain, Susan. Susan, how long had I been here, I had a home to get back to a new baby to meet. Where was I?

Peter. Was Peter?

"Caspian," my question didn't get a chance to fix in my brain before I heard his voice. It hurt madly but I looked into the white light at the mouth of the cave. The High King stood there, his sleeves rolled up ti his elbows, his feet bair and a large gash across his cheek.

"We're back on Ramandu's Island," he explained before I could ask. He shook his head, kneelling beside me as I tried to pull myself up on my elbows, though it was very painful and my head spun.

"We failed, the crew, Lord Bern. Only us and, and Gael. We are all that survived from the Dawn Treader. We must get the seventh sword."

"Susan," I shook my head onces, firmly. He was not dragging me any further into this hell, I needed to help my people yes but my wife came first. No word came of her death, but none of her wakening either. I needed my wife.

"I know. We have to go home, we need Ed and Susan to help us beat this thing. And Gael, she's an orphan now, we need to discover what to do about her. Caspian your arm, it was sliced right through, between your ring and middle finger right down to your elbow, almost the whole way through. Its been sewn but its bad." He paused, rumaging through the pocket in his jerkins, throwing something gold to me.

"We almost lost that," he nodded as he threw the thing into my good right hand. I caught it, opening my hand to discover my wedding ring.

"Thank you," I said honestly greatfull that he still had it. Peter laughed,

"Oh don't worry, I know what it's like to meet the wrath of Susan."

(Susan)

"Lucy! that tickles," I laughed as she teased the bodice of my dress down- she was determined it woud fit when I knew it would not. Her fingers ran lightly all over my stomach and it was so, so tickly.

"Oh I give up!" She sighed, exasperated and helping me untie the damn thing and pull it off, leaving me in my petticoat.

"I told you!" I smiled, laughing at her scowl, oh Lucy could be stubborn when she wanted to.

"Well you need something to wear for winter solstice- oh." Her rant ended quickly with the tiniest 'oh' I'd heard for a long time. Her eyes were fixed on my stomach once more.

"Oh, Susan what happened?" I fially understood, she was staring at the stretch marks that covered me, they looked like big red rips in my skin and the petticoat was so thin that you could see them easily through the silk. I shook my head at my little sister, watching her hands as the carefully pawed the scars.

"They're just stretch marks Lu, where my skin couldn't keep up with the little fatty in there," she laughed, her sweet smile back in place of her anger.

"It feels funny, I thought it'd be hard but it's not," she stepped away but I knew she was still talking about the baby.

"hmm, imagine what it's like when it's actually inside you,"

"That must be weird,"

"Oh believe me it is!" we both laughed but the cheer was brought short with a knock on the door.

"Su, Lu," Edmund, poked his head round the door, averting his eyes from me in my petticoat, "There's a problem. There has been further sightings, we have a rebellion on the horizon."


	7. Notes and Que's

Sorry for those who are waiting for a new chapter since this is not it. I just wanted to say that I've notcied no body has reviewed the last two chapters really, I know its been christmas and stuff and I'm not trying to hassle people- even though reviews really do make my day! I just wanted to say that I also use them as an indication that most people have read that chapter and are ready to move on. I like to keep the suspense by leaving a day or two between them especially as chapter seven is going to be a massive one- as in Eastenders christmas- and I want everyone to have caught up to chapter six before I go on any further.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far- I really love getting them! I hope to hear from some more of you soon! It takes away the stress of having a school project 1/3 of my grade for that subject, which has to be in on the 6th and I've written two pages. Argh

I also want some opinnions on two things: One, which is sort of not related, I was thinking of doing an M rated tie-in to this story (basically showing a little more of how the twins came about) although it would not be nearly that bad, and most things would be hinted at rather than said outright and crudely. I wanted to run it by readers first- a little embarrassed about doing it even though it would probably still be suitable for an under twelve/thirteen also wouldn't just be about the love scene its self but I'd like to do some deliving into our yung King's past and learn more about his childhood- possibly introduce him a little to Susan's life (the scandelous clothes they wear in the forties- seeing a girls knees and all tsk, tsk) so just let me know what you think. Also because I feel we never got to know how the two would be together, only a few times have we actually seen them interact during prince Caspian and they sort of flirted with each other abit and that was it- marriage and babies and a kingdom to run sort of changes things a bit and I think writing them at their most naked- that wasn't meant to be taken two ways but I guess it fits!- will show a lot.

Part two is based on chap six. I admit I let Gael survive and then thought damn it, I dont actually know what to do with this kid! I think I've worked it out now but I want to know what you think.

Hope everyone had a great christmas and has a great new year (I'm Scottish so it's a bigger thing for me than a lot of people) I got a Ukelele and a Kitten- black and white male called Beau. And like I said hope to hear more soon Xx


	8. Chapter 7

(Susan)  
"Ow!"  
" Su? Su what's wrong," Edmund looked worried. I was supposed to be listening, thing were getting scary. It turned out we'd only came up against a tiny portion of the vast telmarine revolt. This wasn't good, there were only three of us, I was in no position to fight. Peter and Caspian could be days away.  
My mind wasn't even on that, as if I was trying to hide my fear but there was more I had started to feel a strange aching pain. A full pain much like the pain I was used to experience each month but stronger. It had been on and off for a little while. That had been a good one, my head was starting to pound alongside my belly.  
"I'm fine it's just another twinge, I think I should go lie down,"  
Edmund got to his feet and came across to pull me out of Caspian's throne in the council room. I tried to pull my hand back but she shook his head,  
"No I'm coming too, you look like you're about to faint." I didn't bother arguing I really didn't feel good at all.  
Edmund walked slowly with me, letting me go at my own pace. He knew and I knew something was really wrong.  
"Su, you are going to be ok right? I mean Mrs Jenks that Mum knows, she wasn't like you. Your not, you know, giving birth are you?"  
"I don't think so, but I don't know." My voice gave into tears, it all came spilling out I was terrified, was I in labour? It was too soon. I just wanted my Mum, really wanted my Mum, someone who knew what they were doing, someone who could give me a hug. I could here her voice, 'it's alright my darling, everything will be fine. I'm not going to leave you but you've got to be my big girl Susan, you need to be nice and strong for me.'  
"It's too soon Ed, I want, I want-,"  
"Ssh, Su. It'll be ok, I promise."

(Caspian)  
"We don't have any way to get home! My wife is heavy with child IF she survived the injury to her head and because of YOU and your hero complex we're stuck on this damn island, this is all you!" I was furious, my wife was alone in such an awful way. I knew by what Peter had said that there was still plenty time before the baby came along but still there were risks. I was stuck on this damn island. My left arm still barely moving from severed nerves. I would need a lot of time for them to recover, if ever, till then I could barely move my fingers. I was useless, there wasn't any chance I could construct a rowing boat let alone a dingy! It was entirely useless. If Susan gave birth before I got home then I'd never see her again, maybe not my child either.  
I'd learned we were on Ramandu's island once more, that the beautiful Liliandil was tending to us. I'd heard that Peter was trying to look after the poor little child. I felt I should be looking after her, I was her king but what could I do? It wasn't even a little fair to expect Susan to take on another's child when she was expecting her own some time soon. I couldn't think of any way we could help her but we would, she would come back to Narnia and she would live with a good family.  
Still that didn't solve my problem!  
"Caspian, I know it's not enough but I'm sorry," I laughed, we were not children it wasn't as simple as a word. I needed to get home, did he really not understand she could be dying? That I might never see her again, our time together had been so short, she was too young for this! Too perfect and amazing and unlike any other woman I had ever met and I had let her die.  
"Excuse me," a very soft voice entered the cave, the voice of a woman but light enough to belong to a girl. The blue light she gave out lit the cave slightly and made it very clear who she was.  
Liliandil sashayed straight up to us,what she wanted I didn't really care I just wanted home and Susan and I doubted she could give me that!  
But it was me she walked to, her eyes were so calm and innocent and pure that I felt I shouldn't be mad in her pressence.  
"I think, your highness, I may be able to help."

(Susan)  
I must have fallen asleep eventually because I was rudely awoken, my eyes and limbs crying, aching from fatigue cause by a large bump sticking out of my abdomen. I fumbled around, moving as quickly as I could away from the hand that grabbed my shoulder.  
A torch light snapped on, making me groan and blink in the strong light. The torch, Edmunds torch shone at me for a brief moment before the one holding it turned it to the floor.  
"Susan, it's me!" Lucy hissed in a stage whisper. The light from the open curtains showed she was dressed in her own nightgown, her cloak slung over her shoulders. I wondered what on earth meant I needed to be woken up, the dark sky an obvious indicator it was the middle of the night! Then I heard noises. The clang and swish and screech of metal on metal, the whip of bow strings, yells of fury and death all muffled by the thick castle walls. We were under siege.  
"We have to get out of here," she hissed again pulling on my arm,  
"Come on, remember the plan." I nodded even though I hadn't heard any plan, I'd been too worried to hear anything during our emergency council. Lucy must have seen it in my eyes.  
"We've to get to Caspian's room and from there outside the castle walls through the secret passageway." I nodded, getting to my feet totally bewildered by what was going on around us.  
Then, I felt it. It was strong almost rippling pain in my belly, the same dull ache as before but this time it was serious, it wasn't hiding any more I knew it couldn't just be a twinge. It was far too soon, a whole month and a week too soon but oh it was not joking around. That was definitely a contraction.  
"Susan?"  
"Lu, I think, I think the baby's coming."  
I watched as my little sisters eyes widened in horror, totally disbelieving the situation. This was ridiculous, it was like an overly dramatic novel. She knew it wasn't good and I knew it wasn't exactly brilliant. At least I knew it took hours for a baby to be born, they didn't just pop out between scenes like in Christmas nativity scenes. That was all the comfort I had, the baby wouldn't be here as of yet.  
"What do we do?" Her large blue eyes asked me- I wasn't exactly the body of knowledge on this topic but I could always try.  
"We stick to the plan."  
My legs felt weak with nerves and from the clicking ache that ran up my back, the feeling of lifting a lot of heavy boxes. I tried to hide it, tried not to let Lucy see how much it really hurt me, but she'd see soon enough. I reached for my own winter cloak, my shoes and my horn which I always kept by my bed in the same way Caspian did his crossbow- it wouldn't be the first time he had woken in the middle of the night to reach for it. Lucy nodded when she saw me lift the horn, I knew it made her feel safer too.  
We didn't even reach the door and another bout of pain hit, this time more in my coxic than my stomach and I bit my lip, fighting against the cruel pain. Lucy shook her head.  
"Maybe we should stay here?"  
"No, I'll be fine in a second, we have to keep going." I took her place at the door, not wanting her to see my eyes, to see the tears that kept taunting me. It was too soon! I'd expected to wake up and find them gone but they were as strong as ever, stronger. I didn't know what it meant, I was going to be like out neighbour, I was going to give birth to a dead baby.  
The little thing had been wriggling around for weeks, the sweet little lump that meant far more than I could have thought. From my second missed monthly episode I'd already began to care for it, loved being able to rub my skin. I'd laughed when the kicking got so hard we made a game out of it, making me lie flat and seeing how many kicks it took for the baby to roll objects off my belly. I loved my baby girl, she was the first time I'd loved a baby, she was learning it wasn't how I looked but how I felt. She was everything she had to be ok, she had to hang on and wait for help.  
Lucy creaked the door, as I dashed back and grabbed my dagger from a bedside table. Lucy looked a little shocked, drawing her own she went first into the darkened hallway. We both went straight to the windows which looked over into the courtyard. The ground below was a mess of victims. Some red soldiers lay bleeding as the black hacked at them in another patch the scene was the other way round. There were more revolting telmarines than I knew good ones and to think they knew who began it all.  
I struggled to believe sweet Susca could be on their side but I understood, it was the upmost instinct that drove her on. She had to protect her baby.  
"Susan!" Lucy suddenly called out, she pointed down to the connecting staircase, to a troop of telmarine soldiers, all had weapons ready.  
"There after us," she added, grabbing my hand as we ran as silently as we could in the opposite direction. These soldiers knew this castle, they knew the escape routes. We couldn't reach Caspian's old room. There was more too as we ran along the corridor we heard quickening footsteps behind us. We were caught, they had spotted us.  
I tried to run faster, tried to keep up with Lucy but I couldn't, it was so hard to run when I was so big and the pain in my head when I tried to go faster. I felt dizzy, I couldn't actually make out the walls around me, I had to trust that Lucy could show me where to go.  
We dived from one corridor to the next, not a clue where we were going but they were vigorously trained soldiers, possibly knights and were tracking our every movement. There was no escape.  
"Ow!" I yelped, falling over my own feet at last.  
"Come on!" Lucy yelled frantically, helping me to my feet. The room swung and another contraction, so much later than the other two, hit hard. I bit my lip trying to run through the pain when all I wanted was to curl up on the floor and rock myself into comfort.  
I snatched my hand from hers,  
"No Lu, keep going without me- you can get help faster. Here," I unclipped my horn from my belt and handed it to her,  
"Go that way, I'll go through the next door,"  
"Swap cloaks," Lucy hissed urgently, hers already unclipped.  
"What?"  
"It's you they want, if we put our hoods up they'll think I'm you."  
"No Lucy-,"  
"Do it,"  
They were at the end of the corridor when I grabbed Lucy's cloak and slid through the nearest doorway. I sighed, relieved for a blissful minute, I didn't have to run anymore but oh goodness it hurt. I wanted to cry and I knew I wasn't in official labour yet, it wasn't even that sore yet.  
Banging made me jump from my skin, the door was flung open and I faced two soldiers, two skilled strong men against a very fat expectant mother. My heart leapt from my chest into my mouth. I had nothing, no weapons other than a short dagger, I was good as dead.  
"Ah, the Queen of Narnia- what a surprise. You really think we would fall for a trick so simple." One of the men sneered walked straight up to me and grabbing my wrist throwing me to the floor. Much to my annoyance tears flooded the stone floor, pain shooting up my back, hips and pelvis from the blow, I didn't want to be weak but no one wants to die. A sword was against me neck with just the right pressure to split through my skin and warm blood trickled down my skin onto the floor.  
"What a shame it is that you took our kingdom, you are a pretty little thing, I would have liked to have had my way with you before you died. He moved, shoving his whole weight on my as he sat astride my body, drawing his sword back and aiming it for my neck.  
"I'm sorry," I whispered under my breath to my unborn baby.  
"Dasticus!" Another telmarine accent boomed across the room. The soldier on top of me froze and glared to the figure at the door.  
"She's mine," the new voice hissed, his voice full of a disgusting lust for my blood. Dasticus stood, his hand grabbing my collar and wrenching my up to my knees, making me choke.  
"By who's authority,"  
"Lord Miraz, rest his sole, promised the girl to me. What are you messing at, the princess got away didn't she? Run!"  
Dasticus dared to defy this authorities soldier for only a second longer before he dropped me again and ran off followed by the soldier who never spoke.  
I shivered, this man he wanted me for more than the other. He was going to use me, take away my chances to give myself wholly only to one man. The authority and power in his voice had frightened the other soldiers who watched briefly in the doorway.  
This soldier powered over to me in silent boots, grabbing my wrists and pulling me right to my feet. His face inches from mine- though I couldn't see it in the darkness- pulled an audible last cry of despair. I was going to die and going to die in agony. A hand reached out towards my face, I suspected a knife. I expected a sharp cut into my skin but instead a soft hand brushed the tears away.  
"It's alright, your safe."

(A/N Oooooh I've been looking forward to that bit for weeks!  
It might be a little short again but I really wanted to end it there. I really hope people enjoy this one and please review. We're starting to get into the action stuff for those who wanted it- though it might be rubbish since I haven't really wrote much of it before.  
Lol my little hearts pounding even though I knew what was going to happen!  
Also the little M rated story is up its called Anything, not sure I like it but let me know what you think for both that and this. Thanks for reading and I happy new year!


	9. Chapter 8

I tried to pull away, tried to scream but the soldier's hand clapped over my mouth.

"Susan, it's me." The voice changed, the accent slipped away a little and I new him.

"Caspian!" I burst into a new set of tears, fear over ruled by so much relief I couldn't help it. His arms wrapped as best they could around me and he let me cry, let me sort myself out in my own time.

"I, I love you," I managed to choke between the tears, so so glad he was safe and we were safe, we'd escaped death somehow by the skin of our teeth.

He pulled me a little closer to him, trying to kiss me but stopped when he felt my stomach touch his. His head whipped down and his hand very carefully tapped at my stomach, walking back till he eventually reached my hip, his head flipped back up though it was too dark for me to see his eyes.

"Wow,"his voice was a whisper of wonder,

"I know, I'm fat," I laughed, this certainly wasn't the most conventional time for him to notice my belly. Caspian snorted in disbelief,

"I presume this is not a good time to tell you my Father and Miraz were twins?"

He was joking right? He had to be. I had thought I was a bit bigger than normal to say the least but twins.

"Oh no," I whispered, not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry.

"There is something else I must tell you concerning the child- or children-" Caspian started but he never finished before we heard a piercing girlish scream.

"Lucy!" I grabbed Caspian's hand and pulled him towards the door.

He trotted quickly after me drawing his sword with on hand and placing the other the small of my back helping me along.

(Helen)

A mother has an instinct, a way of always knowing something isn't right. I had known something was wrong the day my first baby, a few years before Peter was born, died. I miscarried him and I'd had such a feeling all that day. After Nathaniel I never doubted on my instincts. I woke up and knew something was wrong once when Lucy was just a baby and I'd been proved right. I met Susan in the hallway, the eyes of the six-year-old wide with fear. She'd blurted out that Lucy couldn't stop coughing and sure enough she had whooping cough.

I'd had a bad feeling the day Edmund had hobbled home from the local school with a black eye and torn up knees- he was only seven, I knew he hadn't started it.

The same feeling happened time and time again. I'd had to telephone my Uncle Diggory the day the children were evacuated, I was sure something was wrong.

But then there was no reason for me to be feeling that way that day the kids went off to school. Since they went to boarding schools now they were all allowed to stay at home with me though most of their friends were still out in the countryside. I had walked them to the train station, helping with suitcases and coats. I had waved goodbye and came home to finally get the house a good tidy.

Susan usually kept the girls room pretty tidy but Peter and Edmunds room- you'd think a bomb really had hit it! The feeling something was wrong would not leave me alone, I checked with Mrs Bernard across the road to make sure the train has arrived- her daughter was Lucy's age and also heading of to St Finnbars for the first time, though Mary Ellen wasn't quite as independent- and they'd gone off in time. It was strange, they'd been gone twenty minutes was all, what could happen to them in that time?

(Susan)

We kept running, no idea where Lucy had ended up, the scream had came from the direction Lucy had ran but she could have been anywhere.

"Keep going, you'll get to her faster without me,"

"No, I won't leave you, you are in far too delicate a condition to be left defenceless."

"Caspian please," I begged but he wouldn't leave me instead taking a tighter grip of my hand.

"We will waste more time arguing about it!" He shook his head and began to run again, dragging me behind him.

We ran through one corridor then another and another. Please be ok I begged, please be ok Lucy. She had her dagger and my-. The change of my thoughts came straight as we heard the tooting sound of a hunting horn, a cry for help. Caspian took off dragging me behind him in his haste, momentarily forgetting my condition. The door to a room was open, the wall torches were lit outside.

"Susan, get behind me as close as you can," he hissed. I wasn't one for taking orders but sometimes his telmarine side did flare out of him and infect his good nature. This time I wasn't arguing, this time I knew it was going to help.

I did as I was told, curling as close to his back as I could, my stomach almost touching.

We sneaked into the doorway. Lucy was surrounded, bravely defending herself with her little dagger, she wasn't afraid to dive at the four soldiers around her, two carried crossbows and the other two swords. There was a deep slice in Lucy's cheek but otherwise she was uninjured. Caspian shook his head, miming for me to stay back as he snuck on dancers feet towards the soldiers. I was desperate to move, she was my sister and I was helpless to rescue her, I had to take care of my daughter inside me.

I had to watch as my sister and my husband out themselves in danger.

My heart leapt into my mouth as one of the soldiers turned, his swords smashing straight down on Caspian. Then they were all there and he was twisting and turning and stabbing like mad. They were on him, he disappeared beneath two of them. I couldn't hold myself back and I screamed, unable to see what they were doing to him. One looked up and aimed with his crossbow, the bolt flew before I was even aware what was happening. I ducked, knocking myself out of the way of the bolt as it slammed into a crack in the bricks. My heart pounded and my sight turned and twisted. I felt sick and my arms began to shake. White spots in my line of sight became big patches, my whole frame of sight going white.

"Susan!" I heard Caspian scream my name and my eyes snapped open. Panic laced his face, his arms were snapped hard behind back by two remaining soldiers. One lay unconscious near the far wall of the almost bare room the other near my fight his own bolt stabbed into his back.

Out of nowhere Lucy appeared jumping on the back of one of the soldiers and dragging her dagger across his throat. I shoved my head away and heard the choke as he died and splattered to the floor. Caspian wrenched his other arm free dived for his sword and whacked the last soldier over the head with the flat of the blade.

Both Lucy and Caspian ran to me. Caspian carefully helped me to my feet running his hands gently over me, checking for pain. Lucy watched in slight disgust, her face screwing up even more when he kissed me, his lips quite hungry and needy, desperate to know I was really there and really safe, I gave in opening my mouth to him.

"Eww! Susan!" Lucy complained both of us laughed at her, though both secretly were worried, knew there was too much to worry about.

More then every when I felt something else, something that made it real, so much more real something was happening now, the baby really was ready. I gasped, watching eyes on me as I felt a water balloon burst inside me and a trickle of warm water ran down my legs.

"Oh no."

(A/N) well, well done to the people who guessed who it was- you'd think they'd recognise their own King! Helen's involved! And Susan... Oh dear!

Sorry it's short but I'm a bit confused about what I'm doing with this bit thanks to a new idea.

Please review!

Also please take a look at Anything my m rated one shot- we learn something really embarrassing about Caspian lol!


	10. Chapter 9

(A/N) you guys better appreciate this! I was reading a guide to emergency childbirth at around 2am! Also I stupidly didn't think about the language I was using in the last chapter! Susan wouldn't call them contractions!

(Edmund)  
It had been at least an hour, things were mad! I knew they'd attack- they did make it blatantly obvious something was going to happen soon but, for a brief second, they stole our idea. By half an hour there were bodies everywhere, blood pooling congealing into the flagstones, roars and screams, red and black, clinks and thwips it was utter madness. I blinked and another telmarine was there, right in my face, not even a second let up between each strike. I ducked the tall soldiers blow, striking out across his knees with my own sword. The man howled and almost collapsed on top of me another bordered him and swung the silver blade towards my throat, changing his tactic at the last second to hit me over the head with the flat. He knocked me hard, my balance thrown straight off, clattering to the ground. The telmarine smiled down at me, I smiled back unnerving him, he had not a clue a Minotaur stood ready to take his head off. Another scream of death. I headed straight for he stone stairs, I had to know who was causing this attack in order to be able to stop it, I dashed for them jumping over dismembered bodies and dodging blades quickly. A growl sounded and Thornpaw the jaguar arrived at my side leaping lithe up each step.  
"Sire?" He questioned in a voice that always sounded like a growl.  
"We need to know who started this, we have to pick him out!" I yelled over the constant racket of the battle below. The jaguar nodded and trotted to the balcony at my side.  
They were everywhere, hundreds of them, black on red spilled across the courtyard, every visa me body involved in some kind of attack, I didn't know where to start this. I'd been kidding myself, I didn't know what to do, where to find the commander of a battle, Peter always knew his enemy and when Lord Miraz had stood in this position he had known his. All I had to go on was Susca- she was definitely not leading the battle. As much as I seriously did not want to admit it I wasn't the one to lead this, neither was Susan we needed Peter- the one person we didn't have.  
"Any thoughts your majesty?" Thornpaw asked, watching me with his bright eery yellow eyes, he didn't regard me very highly he trusted Peter and only Peter to rule this land. I wanted to drizzle out some rubbish and hope he'd believe it but his family had fought wars with telmarines as long as they had an ancestry, Thornpaw would know I was talking gibberish.  
I was saved by a sound, it was like a hunting horn. I looked around at the crowds of raging soldiers below, searching for the source of the sound, I was sure it was familiar.  
Then it clicked.  
"Susan!" I glanced at Thornpaw, needing a leader, needing to know what to do. My sisters were in trouble, but they needed me here. Thornpaw smiled his icy glare fixed,  
"Go, you were never built to be a general."  
I did, before he could change my mind I ran, not even sure where I was going. The sound hadn't left a trace, only a memory. I knew however where the girls were meant to go, the underground bolt hole two miles from the castle. I knew the way Lucy would go, the way she would lead Susan and I took chance like a bloodhound on the trail. Heavy armour clinking and clanged as I ran the path. Down the stairs, corridor with the plant pot, down those stairs along the back corridor. I panted out the instructions to myself muttering under my breath. I kept on running down the long back corridor. The door to Susan's room was wide open, a good sign. I followed the twists and turns to the letter before realising my plan had failed.  
I saw the blood as I ran past the door, then stopped and peaked in, all the contents of my stomach lurched. There were four dead telmarines. One shot with a cross bow, one had his throat slit, the other stabbed in the back and a final with a broken neck. The floor was red with blood. A twelve year old and an expectant mother couldn't have done this. Bile rose in my throat when I saw their sick plan. As usual the telmarines had murdered their own, tried to make it look like my sisters were being helped but Susan's winter cloak lay on the floor. I lifted the bottom of it to find the hem was wet, the cloak was red so I couldn't tell but what was it if not blood.

(Susan)  
"Ouch," I yelped again, it was so much worse than the ones before. I didn't understand this, I didn't know what to do! I was told by Tibberus my belly would ache, my back would hurt and I might feel a bit sick and then my waters- which she described as like the white of an egg- would burst and water would leak from that place between my legs. It had happened and it was still happening, water still leaked down to my feet I was wet and cold and the pain.  
The pains hadn't happened for a while and then this one. My belly ached so much but the ache was dull and still like the monthly pain but is it hurt so much more. I wanted to curl up in my bed, for mum to bring me a hot water bottle and aspirin. To place a cold cloth on my head and say once the bleeding slowed it would go away. But I had a cold floor and shaking legs and I couldn't help myself, couldn't stop the tears on my cheeks. Caspian and Lucy stopped, watching as I squeezed my stomach muscles hoping for some relief only to be hit by another splash of water. Both were helpless and I felt bad for doing this to them but it wasn't meant to be like this! Caspian stroked my hand softly as I squeezed my eyes shut. He had no other way to help me- it was ridiculous. I didn't know what had happened to Lucy and until the pain passed I didn't care.  
"Ugh," I breathed out, the aching, powerful pain sliding away. My eyes slowly loosened and opened, Caspian watched me, his eyes set strong.  
"Are you alright?" I kept trying to breath lightly, I wanted the pain to stay away from me- I didn't think it could hurt so much. I just nodded, afraid to speak incase of this controlling pain! It was mad, totally mad.

(Peter)  
"Peter?" Gael trudged across the beach towards me her feet kicking up the sand. She was better today, some days the little one was totally blank, she would sit and say nothing. I worried for her, wondered where she would go. I'd thought Susan would take her on but Caspian was right, it wasn't fair to expect it when she had her own baby to look after. I didn't want to watch her fade away, I wanted to make sure she stayed happy. She reminded me so much of Lucy at that age, a few years before the war. She was clever and brave and so adventurous. I remembered when Lucy used to be a kid but the war took that away, if we hadn't been evacuated Lucy would have got to say a child. It wasn't to be and she became a queen instead.  
I didn't want that to happen to Gael, for some reason it was as if she was becoming Lucy, I wanted to protect her.

(Edmund)  
I followed the trail they should've taken, there wasn't any blood for a good while and I was beginning to think that somehow they really had gotten away. Then there was a splattering of scarlet on the floor, bright but watery blood. The puddle spread into drips splattering along the ground. The puddles of blood went the wrong way, they were supposed to go towards the stables and out the back towards the underground safe chamber. What was going on? I really didn't know what to expect. If the blood didn't start for a good twenty yards, and it definitely wasn't pure. Did that mean that someone had tried to wash it away. Had they killed my sisters and tried to hide their bodies?  
Rage screamed through my blood and I ran down the stairs after the trail of blood, following it begging for them to be safe, beginning that nothing had happened to Lucy and Susan and, well and my niece or nephew. I needed to find them, how could I do it, how could I tell Peter and Caspian if something happened to them? They had to be ok, Lucy was strong but Susan. Susan had given us all enough reason to worry over her. What if she Was having the baby, like she'd suspected the night before?  
I needed to find them both, quickly.

(Lucy)  
Something wasn't right, it looked very sore whatever was happening to Susan. I didn't know it was supposed to be sore to have a baby. Actually, when I thought about it, I didn't know how it was born, where did it come out? How did it get out? When Susan had said her waters had broken and then said that meant the baby was really coming now, I thought it would only be a few minutes and she'd have a very cute little baby in her arms. This wasn't how I thought it would be, I didn't think she would look in so much pain. She whimpered and bit her lip and then her dress began to trail blood as well as water that was still coming out of her girlie bits.  
It had been an hour of walking, an hour since the baby had began to come. We were barely getting anywhere, I took the lead following the instructions Caspian called out as he supported Susan. At that moment she was leaning against his chest, her lip bleeding, eyes squeezed so tight the lids overlapped. She'd started to rock and sway her hips back an forward, and whimpering noises slipped from her mouth. Caspian held her firmly one hand rubbed her back and the other smoothing down her hair.  
Caspian looked like he knew what he was doing, he smiled at Susan but he looked at me with the same fear I wore. He was scared, I was scared neither of us knew what we were going to do. We needed to help Susan but we didn't know how, we didn't know what to do about it, where to turn. We were pretty much lost.  
Feet sounded in the corridor far behind us, pounding tapping on the stone floor coming after us. The soldier had cottoned on, they new where we were and they were coming as soon as the baby was.  
"Run!" I hissed turning to take of but Susan whimpered, clutching her belly. She shook her head slowly, her face wracked with agony.  
"I can't- aha!" She was cut off by her own yelp of pain, her hands digging into her robe and into her skin. She bit her split lip again. Caspian looked around thinking then wrapped his arm tight round the back of her.  
"Hold onto me," he whispered. Susan looked surprised but did as she was told, clutching his shirt as he put his other hand under the back of her legs and pulled her up into his arms, nudging her bum up with his knee till she was safely cradled close to him. Susan didn't even make to complain and that wasn't like her, she just lay there. Her eyes blinking open and shut, briefly as we walked the fasted we could down the corridor, praying we could escape.

(Helen)  
I had friends coming for lunch, ones that it was best to see when the children weren't at home and I had been in the middle of scraping out the last of the weeks jam rations into the basic sponge I'd made. When there was a sudden wind, a strong wind that caught me totally off guard. I looked around the room, none of the windows were open and it wasn't the whistle of a gas leak- we had plenty of them around the bombing. I went to the kitchen door, the cat must've got the front door open again. I opened the kitchen door then stared. The hallway, the walls, the carpet, the ceiling all were gone. Not a brick remained. It was absolutely impossible. I was staring into starlit open countryside.

(A/N) made up for my short chapter- not loads has really happened I'm afraid but I really hope you enjoy what's happening!  
I was going to write more from Peter but quite frankly I can't stand Liliandil! I hope you enjoyed it! Also Thanks to Trapped In Narnia you mentioned a few things I hadn't thought about! And don't worry Reepicheep will able an important appearance in the next chapter- there will be a lot more for progress for Susan in the next chapter as well I just wanted to cover some povs and stuff here sorry it's not the best but I've had a bit if a down day today and not felt every inspired.


	11. Sorry MORE NOTES!

(A/N)

I regret and am very sorry this isn't a chapter! I wanted to say that I've added my first poll onto my profile page. It is regarding how you view Caspian. I feel he is a bit of a Mary Sue at the moment but his character is very underdeveloped other than being ultra stereotypical so I'm hoping to do some writing in role and maybe some online re-reading of Prince Caspian to get a better feel for him before the next chapter- his point of view will be dominent over Susan's as she developes more contractions and her pain threshold wants to curl up and die with her!

Anyway I was actually wondering more about how you envision Caspian, and that's what the Poll is about. Originally I only really had his younger more boyish self from Prince Caspian but now that I've seen VDT I actually think I like him better in that, I think he is so much more relaxed in himself and he looks more capable of being a father in his more rugged state. I'm not sure about his voice either- I loved the accent as well at first but I think by trying to make him sound like Caspian his vocabulary is very dull. So what to you think?

I've also been meaning to give you all some info on Preeclampsia and then it was brought up so I thought- even though it's almost one am again! that I'd give you some info and save you all the hard work of researching it, since I love researching things- everything in this story has been researched as much as possible- and most of you probably don't.

So Preeclampsia is incredibly high blood preassure, there aren't any real links to it being brought on by stress but giving normal high blood preassure is brought on by stress there's a good chance- that was what I was thinking when I gave it to Susan (bet she loves me for that!- almost as much as she loves me for the twins!) So, whats the difference between Preeclampsia and high blood preassure- you can only get Preeclampsia if your pregnant or have not long had a baby. It kills thousands of women a year, often because it leads to a stroke or organ failure. It's symptoms are, swelling in the feet and ankles, sudden weight gain, headaches, aches in the back and bump (lol) and changes in vision- I've used all of these for Susan at one point in the story.

It normally starts around twenty weeks- so she didn't have it when the boys left since at that point she was sixteen weeks (four months)

If untreated Preeclampsia turns into Eclampsia which is almost always deadly for mum and baby (or babies) Most people with preeclampsia are monitored and given baby-safe medication to control the blood preassure, if it gets too severe the mum and her bump will move into hospital on total bedrest until baby comes along, worse still and emergency c-section. Obviously none of these options are available to Susan, so preeclampsia may well turn into eclampsia, which normally makes itself know by mum having seizures.

And the at risk group? Susan is both carrying multiples and under eighteen- oh dear! It could also leave the babies with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, blind and deafness and learning difficulties.

Good luck Su! Xx

oh... and you might want to start looking into postnatal depression too! (I know I'm evil!)


	12. Chapter 11

(Caspian)

How could they do this? The same people I had grown up with, the same boys from the castles courtyard were against us. That didn't sicken me as much is those who could plot to kill Susan, in her condition and all. It was disgusting, where was the gentleman in each and every one of them? I held her in my arms, they ached from her weight, of which she had gained so much since I'd last lifted her. To think she had been expecting then and I hadn't even known. I still felt awful for leaving her, she was showing when we left and I didn't even notice! The more I'd thought about it I remembered a conversation we had before I left her to the lions. I'd felt a much more solid area under skin down below her belly button, I had pointed it out to her and she'd simply mentioned it was her womb and when I mentioned that it was never usually so firm she had only said 'I know' as a reply. I should've thought. But I didn't and I'd done this! She was barely conscious in my weakening arms, one arm still clutched my shirt, squeezing weakly whenever each new pain came racking through her, torturing her. I'd felt her belly and it was softening and hardening with the pain, her muscles were squeezing the baby down- or so Lucy told me.

The other of Susan's arms lay on top of her belly, every now and again she would rub it, reassuring her baby. Or babies.

As soon as I'd seen, or felt, her belly I'd known. I heard that many traits were passed through families- I had my fathers hair for example- and so I presumed if my Grandfather's seed was capable of growing two children at one time then it was likely my Father's was and then my own. I knew that was a privilege to be able to do that but still I felt for Susan. I'd made it even less likely for her to survive this. I had made her so sick she wasn't able to protest to me carrying her, so sick she could do nothing but whimper in and out of consciousness. This was me, if we hasn't such a libido she wouldn't be so pained.

The footsteps carried on to Chase after us, whichever vile fool was perusing us was about to pay, he should've thought before attacking us. He would feel the sharp end of my sword very soon. It was getting harder for us to stay behind us and there was only one of him.

"Lucy, support her for a moment," I decided, laying Susan's feet very carefully on the ground and letting her wrap her arm across the shoulders of her younger sister. Susan's eyes snapped open and through the pain sheaving her icy irises she looked at me with worry, worry for what I was going to do.

"Keep going if she can walk, I'll follow you as soon as I can,"

Lucy simply nodded, she was as iron hearted as any man in these type of situations. Susan would have told me not to go if she wasn't consumed with another wave of pain. Lucy was brave and strong and efficient, the best person I could want right then.

"Aahaha," Susan cried again, turning from Lucy to push against the wall instead. She looked up at me again, pleading in her eyes. I couldn't leave her.

"What can I do?" She just shook her head and continued to breath quickly, sucking air between her teeth. I gently squeezed her belly, feeling how firm it was, skin stretched out like a drum skin.

"Susan!" The voice called from a distance, I checked quickly around me Lucy's expression also showed she'd heard it.

The footsteps quicken after us again, he called again,

"Susan! Lucy!" Then I knew his voice, Edmund. The king appeared in the light a little further back down the corridor from where I stood. He stared at me and I stared back. So much relief, someone we could trust.

"Caspian? How on earth-," he was cut off when he saw Susan. She let go of the wall and pushed her arms back around my neck, I was the only thing keeping her on her feet. She buried her face into my neck as I turned to look at Edmund.

"What's wrong with her?" Alarm pumped out in his voice, he glared at me suddenly turning into the protective older brother that Peter usually was. To my surprise Susan wrenched her head away from my skin and looked, eyes hazy, at Edmund,

"I'm in," she paused to take a deep breath, "the baby, it's coming. Now."

Edmunds eyes widened as Susan began to relax, letting go of me and taking her own weight. She stood, absentmindedly rubbing her very large belly. Edmund glanced at me for guidance, looking at me in Peter's place, asking if it was true. I nodded, turning to follow Lucy further down the corridor as Susan waddled after her, but he called to me, eyes narrowed, and caught up.

"Where did you come from?" He hissed, he sounded somewhat annoyed and I really didn't understand why.

"I, we were shipwreck. Only Peter and I plus a young stowaway named Gael survived. We were on the island of Ramandu when I awoke to find what had happened. I had almost severed my left arm and then I was told we had no ship to travel home with. The daughter of Ramandu, Liliandil heard my anger and she explained she could help me. As a half-star she had some magical properties but she could only transport one person at a time, it would take her a day or two to regain the magic to send another.

"I arrived just on the back corridor in time to hear Susan cry."

Edmund glared at me, something was really bothering him somehow and I thought it was to do with me, though I couldn't think why.

I became aware of sweat sticking to my neck, Susan was really beginning to get into the birth. It wasn't the first time if been covered in her sweat but this was very different. I delicately wiped it off, too much of a reminder of the guilt I felt.

(Edmund)

Trust bloody Caspian to come in and save the day as always- he was worse than Peter sometimes. I shouldn't have felt like I did, if Caspian hadn't been there then Susan and Lucy and the baby all would've died but I couldn't help it, why was I never the hero. Susan got that, she knew I didn't feel allowed to be the man yet, I was just the boy king, the one everyone felt they could order about. Peter even treated Caspian as more of a king than me, and it didn't matter what he'd done he was still a telmarine. It really wasn't fair. I didn't particularly want to see him saving the day and to come across them with Susan wrapped around him all sweaty and whimpering into his neck- an awful reminder of how she'd got in her delicate condition in the first place- I felt the protective part of me rise up and want to tell him to get off her. I never used to be like that but seeing Lucy grow up and her begin to change into a woman I couldn't help it, it was more than just jealousy I felt towards Caspian, even though I knew Susan and Caspian were married and allowed to do what they were doing I couldn't deal with it, to me he was just like all the boys at home more than happy to take my sister to bed.

I wasn't his biggest fan at that moment. I knew I was being selfish! I knew my thoughts on him were momentary and induced only because I wanted to, for once do something helpful.

(Peter)

"I'm sorry it is a little distracting," Liliandil's sweet clear voice carried over the table. The long table with three slumbering old men at the end. She slid across the room in her very simple white dress. She really was beautiful, so pure looking- untouched by the outside world. Like Gael.

"Oh, oh no I was just dreaming,"

"But you weren't asleep your highness?" Confusion came out in her voice, the star child had so little knowledge of the world beyond the island.

"No, I wasn't. Please, call me Peter, where's Gael?"

"If you wish. The girl is asleep, poor child." I nodded my agreement, it was awful what she was living with but she had taken quite a shine to Liliandil.

"She likes you."

"She likes you too, and, and so do I."

I hadn't expected that. She was watching me as she said it, her cheeks flushed and I could feel mine burning in return.

Then she leaned across the long table and kissed me.

(Caspian)

It took us another half hour to arrive at the heavy iron doors of the safety chamber, ten feet below the earths surface. Susan had wanted to walk saying it helped, and Lucy had added that gravity would help if she were to walk. However her pain had became so great she had to stop each time a new pain hit her. She was no longer able to speak when each one hit her and she was crying through it all. My wife's cheeks were a bright scarlet and she was sweating constantly, water literally running off her hands. Edmund pulled the doors open into the large cave-like room. There were no comforts at all, only a few very large candles for light, a box of matches and a fire pit. Lucy went straight to the far end and dusted a large chest, so large I was surprised that I really hadn't noticed it. She opened the lid and pulled out a full wineskin, and a few rugs which she laid out on the floor,

"Susan, sit." She commanded and Susan looked at me for help but I shook my head,

"You need that dress off, you look as though you will melt if its worn for much longer.

"Wow, I don't need to see my sister's bare... things," Edmund groaned turning his back. I rolled my eyes it was a bit of an emergency situation for him to be acting like that.

I helped Susan undo the sash that was tight across her ribs and then the dress just slipped straight off of her, leaving her in only white petticoat. She groaned again as I was doing so, whining a long, low note into me neck. After a few moments she let go and looked into my eyes.

"I can feel it, it's head is in my pelvis."

Lucy looked at Edmund and I, offering the wine skin to Susan, who took it gladly and drank deeply.

"They're getting closer. We need help now." The voice of the youngest Pevensie was grave and worried.

"I can't see!" Susan suddenly exclaimed in terror, grabbing forward with her hands for me. I took hold of her waist and after a few minutes her sight must've came back to her for she relaxed and looked up at me.

" This is-," she cut herself of, sucking air between her teeth and turning to press her arms against the wall for support, a low moaning sound escaping her throat. She held her breath squeezing her eyes shut.

After at least an entire minute she gasped for air, panting as if she'd just been diving under the sea.

"Susan you have to remember to breathe!" Lucy tutted, half joking to keep the room a little lighter.

"This isn't good," her voice sounded weak she sounded exhausted already and I had doubts she could keep going. This time I helped her to sit on the rugs Lucy laid out and she found it quite difficult to move, the baby being really right there.

Lucy, who really seemed to have an understanding of this, for which we were all grateful.

Then she froze, Susan flopped back like a rag doll or a sack of flour and began to shake violently, her limbs moving around madly at a high speed, constantly shaking.

"Susan!" Two voices yelled at once, I wasn't even sure which, if either of them was mine. I reached out, wanting to touch her though I didn't even know what that would achieve.

"Don't!" Lucy called to me, my hand freezing in mid air.

"You shouldn't touch her, she's fitting. We really need to do something." Lucy looked between Edmund and I though I wasn't able to see her, looking right through her to Susan. Watching my wife shake like a leaf in a storm, a tiny bird in devilous waves.

"Why can't you give her cordial? That'll stop the pain and this... Shaking."

Edmund and Lucy both looked down, both not wanting to meet my eye, both knowing I wouldn't like what they had to say.

"Remember what Albernan told you?" Edmund snapped, "it doesn't work on her, we need them out first." The way he said the word them, it was so flat, so uncaring of his nieces or nephews.

"We need help Ed," Lucy said softly, trying to calm her older brother. Her voice turned right down to a whisper as if she didn't even want me to hear,

"If she doesn't get help soon. Susan will die."

(Edmund)

I went. I left the safety compound in search of someone, any female who could assist Lucy. I was mad, really mad everything that was happening it was all his damn fault. It was Caspian's fault the telmarines invaded the castle, it was his fault that they hated us, it was his fault that Susan was even pregnant in the first place and it was definitely his fault if she died.

I ran all the way back to the castle on burning outrage. This was all happening because of him! I didn't even care that Susan loved him, I didn't care that it would leave a baby without a Father, if Susan died I'd kill him myself.

(Lucy)

It was getting to Edmund- he was angry, the way he used to get if things didn't go right. Middle child syndrome Mum used to call it, Edmund didn't mean it but he would do anything for attention, his anger sparked over anything and this, whatever the problem was, was directed straight at Caspian.

I had more important things to think about however. I had to concentrate on Susan. It was strange that, now I was involved, I sort of knew what Susan needed, what to do for her. I remembered doing it before, I'd helped someone before but it was so long ago in the Golden Age, it was like remembering a poem or a song that I'd learned back when I was only a little girl. I was remembering more as I went along. I knew some things were a good sign and others, like the fits, were most definitely not. Susan had began to trust that I knew what to do, where as Caspian stood around and looked scared- I was starting to understand why men were kept out of the delivery room but he had his uses too, he helped her I think. Susan was just all over the place, not knowing where to look and what to think or what to do. She was so exhausted, ready to give up but she was just ready to begin pushing. Caspian kept pushing her hair away from her and squeezing her hand. He kissed her forehead and muttered live and encouragement into her ear while I had the horrid pleasure of checking what was going in between her legs. Susan whimpered when I went to check her cervix and found that my fingers touched the baby's head long before they should have.

"Susan!" I called in surprise, pulling my fingers back too quickly and making her yelp.

"Sorry. You should've been pushing ages ago- it's almost here." I was overcome with excitement, she was really coming now. A beautiful little baby, my niece as Ash the centaur had said.

Oh the tiny sweet little thing she would be.

"Cas, I can't. I just can't, it's so," Susan began, her voice almost gone from her exhaustion.

Caspian took her face in both his hands, looked straight at her and spoke softly to her. Their noses almost touched,

"Susan, I know you can do it. I've seen you on a battlefield, I've seen you take down six well-trained telmarine knights one after another. You can do anything my Queen, I know you can." She looked close to tears, but she managed to nod, water dripping down her cheeks onto her scantily covered chest.

"Next pain you need to squeeze your stomach muscles Su, tighten them and push down." Susan nodded but she was so exhausted I barely even knew if she'd heard me. She began to roll her head back and forwards as the next pain built up and began to push down on her, paralysing her body with pain. She screamed inwardly and silently as it came higher and she began to push, her hands squeezing Caspian's and mine as he supported her in a more upright position. She squeezed with all her might and I wasn't paying attention.

There was a splash of water and then the baby's head was there, she kept it going though and the tiny frog-like creature slipped out. I rushed forward to take hold of it, Susan didn't even seem to have noticed.

The baby didn't make a sound.

I took hold of the tiny thing it flopped back in my hands, like like it was dead. Caspian saw the worry on my face, saw the panic in my eyes as the little blue tinged creature lay there. There was no cord round it's neck, nothing that would make her like this.

Eventually I got back into action and pushed my pinky in its mouth. I spooned all the gunk out but there was nothing; still nothing. Susan started to become aware, she was shaking from shock and tears continued to stream from her cheeks as she watched on in horror.

No first cry came but the tiny things eyes moved. It was alive! I looked around for something to rub her with, anything to stimulate her and relieve the shock. Caspian, instantly observing there was nothing else pulled off his white shirt and handed it to me.

Seconds, half a minute. Nothing promising. Then at last the tiniest little noise, the smallest sound.

The entire cave sighed with relief. Caspian was itching to ask for her but he didn't dare- a sparkle in the corner of his eyes as he looked at the minuet little child. I handed the baby over to its Father offering my congratulations with a smile that refused to leave me. I'd just delivered my niece, my relative and oh even covered in blood and white gritty goo she was perfect. The tiny little wrinkly baby, the sweet almost-angel.

Susan looked so shocked and amazed and full of more love I'd ever seen when Caspian handed the tiny got to her and sat down at her side. She began to cry again,

"She's just perfect, my baby. She's my baby!" Caspian turned her head away from the baby and kissed her deeply. And for once it wasn't that awful, it was...sweet. They looked like a proper family, my sister and my brother in law and my niece. Together.

"She has your eyes," Caspian said, not taking his own away from the little girl.

Susan laughed,

"All babies have blue eyes Caspian,"

"Does she have a name?" I asked- needing something for the little one to be known as, needing to have something that belonged to her and only her.

I was surprised that it was Caspian who spoke first, and Susan's face showed she didn't know those words before they came out.

"Diara Susana, she's Princess Diara Susana." Susan smiled, tearing up again. Tears which quickly became a wince.

"Oh, Cas. You know what you said about twins? Well she definitely is, I can feel her sister coming."

(A/N) this chapter I think is longer because I wanted to get to this stage- name thoughts? Do you like it? I think it sounds really good with Caspian's Spanish accent. I'm not sure how long this story will actually be now. I suffer from depression and that leads to big dips in my interest in absolutely everything and I have been told I am not to force myself to do anything I don't want to do so this is likely to only have one or two more chapters. I'd rather be safe and finish it than lose interest half way through the longer section I had planned and leave you all hanging. I'm really sorry if this turns out to be the case but I often feel really guilty when this happens so please don't be annoyed with me. It was only meant to be around give chapters so it is double the length it was going to be.

Please let me know what you thought of this, it really helps me through these down times of no interest. Thank you!


	13. Chapter 12

(A/N) sorry for those who don't like it but I've done a bit of a short time lapse- I felt after the birth of baby one you- and I!- didn't need it to be duplicated. Sorry it is a bit of a cop-out but I want to complete this for you all so I do hope you enjoy it. Basically I've moved a few hours forward.

(Edmund)

I'd cooled off by the time I returned to the Castle- I'd been a bit miffed to find out that I'm actual fact the first of the babies was born before I even got help. Then I was told- again by a fern dryad that there was another baby. Two little girls had been born, Susan had two little girls. I was a little thrilled for her. Not that I was a baby fan- especially when they were little and puffed up and frog-legged. They were my Nieces- being able to say those words, imagining introducing them 'yes this is mini-Susan one and mini-Susan two, my nieces' it was so strange.

That sort of calmed me down and I realised what a spoilt brat I had been earlier- we were all only doing our job and I was just unable to admit that actually I had done all I could and Caspian wasn't to blame for anything. I'd been such a kid! I really hoped I hadn't been so much of an idiot that Susan was waiting to waggle her finger at me as I trudged home.

I began to get suspicious- a real oh-oh- when I realised there should have been celebration, fireworks and announcements and one thing the trees hadn't said. They announced the High Queen had given birth to twin girls but there was no 'mum and babies doing well'. There was something going really wrong. I reached the draw bridge to be welcomed by none other than mister-I-love-Peter, Thornpaw himself.

"Your highness," he grunted, treating my title as a joke. "The siege was controlled quickly after you left." I had a strong feeling that was a dig at me and it really hurt, I had a sister to look after- and two nieces. I had two new baby nieces and nothing was going to ruin this day.

"What time is it Thornpaw?" The old cat looked at me in shock and mumbled that it was around 2:35am. I did some quick rough calculations and laughed, catching the old bat off guard.

"Did you know Thornpaw that underground, north of here my twin nieces were born on different days!" I laughed again and he went to skulk off but I caught him with a glance- as I was royalty he had an obligation to answer my every question.

"No your majesty, I did not. Offer my congratulations to the Queen." Then he skulked of.

Beyond the bridge everything was quite. Something was very wrong. It should have been in full party mode, there should be feasts prepared and wine brewed for the following day, a day where the whole of Narnia would have a holiday to honour the babies. I didn't even think a speck of dust was there to acknowledge my safe arrival home.

I headed straight up the stairs and straight for Susan's quarters. The wooden doors were shut, she always left it cracked- unless her and Caspian were... But that was normally in his room. I had to knock on the door, a hornless head poked out along with one cloved hoof and Tibberus silently welcomed me into the room.

My breath stayed at the door.

Susan was laid on her bed, she wore the same revealing white petticoat as before but now it was soaked with what looked like a wine stain, the red went right from the hem to just under her chest. I knew it wasn't wine. It was blood.

Her face was white pale, her hands laid out and her legs together. She looked almost dressed for heaven. She looked dead.

"What happened!?" I couldn't stop it, I felt spoilt brat coming back but like a speedy train it could not be stopped. A strong hand laid on my shoulder and I snapped, everything I'd said to myself on the long two hour walk from the bolt hole to Beaversdam flew straight out the window in seconds.

"This is all your Fault!" I yelled straight in Caspian's face not even thinking he was upset too, not thinking that's his wife lying there. I felt no empathy at all, Susan was either dead or dying and I couldn't stop it, why hadn't they stopped it? Why did I always make the wrong choices? Why did I have to be left in charge?

I ran like a coward down the corridor to my own room, slammed the door and burst into tears which were as much rage as they were upset. I screamed into my arm, needing to get it out but not wanting to be heard. I didn't want to be the stupid child who always passed the blame but I knew I was, I knew I was the one who caused the trouble. Why hadn't I gone to the woods first, I could have been in the Shuddering woods far quicker I could have got help for my sister faster but I didn't. I was too hot headed and had to go the longest walk, I'd have been as well going to Archenland! I was such a mindless, hopeless idiot!

"Edmund?" The door opened a little and Lucy pokes her he's round, it was too late she'd already seen my tears before I could wipe them away.

"Why do I have to be so damn stupid and useless and jealous!" I sobbed- feeling very stupid.

"Jealous? Of who?" Lucy spoke gently coming over to sit on my bed. There was blood under her nails; Susan's blood. She was too good, to inquisitive and I knew she'd wiggle it out of me.

"Caspian." Lucy laughed but she wasn't being unkind, just reacting as anyone should- it made me sound like I wanted to be married to Susan.

"Everyone else has been the Hero Lu, I. I feel useless. I wanted to so something I wanted to be able to have saved someone's life for once and I got to you both and he was already there. They've both been hero's, him and Peter, I just I wanted to be able to do something and I was stupid and headed to Beaversdam for help when I should have went to Shuddering Woods and now. Susan,"

"She's ok Ed."

"What?" My voice sounded like the child who'd been told a car accident was just a dream.

"Tibberus found us, she knew where we were to go. We did almost lose her, Susan was I'm agony and the baby wouldn't come out and she kept fitting!

"I was scared too Ed, I wanted to be the hero, I wanted to rescue her and I only made it worse. Tibberus performed a Caesarean- they cut her open and pulled the second baby out. She had nothing to stop the pain and Susan screamed in agony. I was sick it was so, so horrible. Caspian gave me the first baby and made me go outside. He looked green too but he wasn't sick. Tibberus sewed her belly back up and then I had to give her the cordial. They carried her back here, the pain must've knocked her out and she's never woken up but she is breathing and she has a pulse.

"It'll be ok Ed, it will really be ok," I laughed,

" you sound like Mum."

(Helen)

'What in earth' I whispered to myself. I had really walked from my kitchen into a forest. The door had disappeared and I felt I was living The Adventures Of Alice In Wonderland in person.

"Helen Pevensie," I looked down and screamed. A mouse, and not just any but a talking mouse! It was utterly beyond ridiculous. I looked around certain the voice was on a wireless radio, a radio which had a very clear line. There had to be, mice- no matter how well trained- did not talk.

The mouse scurried across the ground and jumped up onto a tree trunk, scrambled up the bark and looked me in the eye from a higher branch.

"You are Helen Pevensie?" It's lips moved. My skin felt shudders run down it. A talking mouse. How impossible. The mouse was wearing a tiny sword sheaf and a band round one ear with a red feather on it.

I almost laughed at my own madness when I found myself talking back to the mouse.

"Yes, who are you?" My voice shook, this was all so sureal. "How is this possible?"

The large mouse laughed,

"I believe, if the old tales are correct, that your daughter said the very same."

That was too much. How did this mouse know my daughter? which daughter? How could he know anything about me, he already knew my name, what else? He was only a mouse and mice did not talk!

"How do you know my daughter, which one?" I was beginning to panic- the bad feeling I'd felt, what was going on this was all just an impossible dream. Even my eldest daughter was still just a baby- only sixteen. The mouse wasn't helping my worries, he only laughed at me, making me aware he knew something I didn't.

"You'll learn soon enough. Everyone here knows both your sons and daughters. I think it would be easier if they were to explain. If you'll be so kind as to follow me," the mouse bowed to me and climbed down from the tree to show me the way. And stupidly I followed him.

(Susan)

Pain. The only thing I could feel or think. It was agonising, the pain in my stomach as it knitted back together, all my insides squeezing and sewing. Every piece of tissue, every muscle in my stomach burned white light and the flame of dragons. It was more than a thousand hot needles pulling a splinter from my hand. It had knocked me out and I had screamed and people had ran around. I'd seen my own blood pooling on the floor. I should've been dead.

But I wasn't dead.

I was in my own bed whe I opened my eyes, in my own room. A big hand, which I recognised straight away, was stroking my head. Tibberus' hooves clacked around on the floor and nothing else. I also quickly earned a kiss on the forehead, I imagined was for being alive at all. I heard my husband shuffle around and come to sit where I could see him. I tried to move but he gently pushed me back shaking his head,

"No, rest. You are very weak."

I couldn't see Tibberus but I heard her voice too,

"His majest is correct your highness, you have lost a lot of blood and you need to rest, I would like to see if you're able to feed your babies now. They really need to be fed as soon as possible after being born- they get hungry." Tibberus came into my line of sight just as she headed towards the door. My babies must have been placed in their nursery.

"They must be starving," I whispered to myself. Caspian nodded, stroking from my hand up to my shoulder. He needed to feel he was doing something helpful. He couldn't help the twins, only I could feed them, so he needed to feel he was helping me instead.

"The second baby? Inara Helena. She's called Inara Helena, after our Mums."

I saw the surprise in his face, he had such sad half-memories of his mum. He never talked about her at all. I had found out after many spare days with his old tutor that his mother died giving birth to him- a problem with blood just like I'd been told I had. I had found out her name Inara Costellia, from Dr Cornelious and that she was a very kind, majestic gentle woman. He said at first that is why Caspian had a childhood infatuation with me, he wanted to study the Mother he didn't know and he could do that much easier through me.

"After my Mother, how? Doctor Cornelious. He told you didn't he?" I nodded,

"I wanted to honour your Mother, to have both her Grandma's in her name. Is she, is she OK?" My heart ached, not sure it really wanted any sort of answer. It wanted two happy,healthy, fat babies which were able to thrive well.

"Inara, Inara cried. She was very strong when she came out but Diara, she's a bit different. They think she's an invalid." I felt my eyes widen, in horror. My baby was disabled. My heart turned into a torpedoed submarine, falling fast into the ocean floor. Something was wrong with her. What did that mean, would she be able to walk, talk? Would she mumble and rock on her heals? would she eat dirt and grass, live like a baby for the rest of her life? I began to cry again.

This time I was carefully helped to sit up so Caspian could wrap his arms around me, let me cry into his second shirt of the day. He stroked my back, kept his lips pressed to my head, he wasn't feeling the same despair- I could tell in the way he acted. He was still so happy I was alive that the world of our children didn't matter to him yet. He wasn't built with the same maternal instinct I was, I was the highest type of love he could feel where as I could feel more love for our children.

The door moved, Caspian's head moved from the top of mine but he didn't remove his hands from what was too intimate a caress for public. I blushed but he didn't move at all, happy to be where he was even though it was inproper.

"Your majesty?" Tibberus said to Caspian,giving a look that was asking him to leave. I knew the rules even though they seemed stupid. Caspian wouldn't be allowed to watch while I fed the babies even though he had most certainly seen it all before. I knew I had broken enough tradditions however just by wanting to feed my own baby. It was much more common I knew for the children to be given to a wet nurse, this meant I would be quicker back into hormonal sync and more likely to concieve quickly once more- I had no plans of having any more children anytime soon, but they didn't need to know that.

Tibberus held only one little bundle of life, only one of my babies, She noticed the look on my face.

"I'm sorry, it is in the best interest that we try to keep the healthier of the babies just that. It is better to give the healthier her first meal before the sickling."

She gently passed the little bundle to me, the first time I had met Inara and, she looked exactly like Diara. There was no difference at all they were absoutely identical. It was like holding Diara all over again. The longer I spent taking her in though I began to see her faults. I saw all the things that she did which Diara hadn't. Inara could bend all her limbs where as Diara had been stiff, Inara was fluid and wriggled her feet and arms through the swaddling where as Diara had stayed more or less still and awkward in any movements she did make.

There were differences in my two girls, one was lucky and the other not so much, one would thrive and the life of the other laid directly on the line.

Tibberus helped me, moving around clothes and showing me how to help her latch on without sucking her lip in and breaking the skin-to-skin seal needed for her to feed properly. The sensation of her Suckling was very strange, very odd and hard to describe. A little like when you squeezed your mouth too hard around something and created a seal that was almost like trying to pull of a magnet. She didn't let go though, sucking greedily as if she had never been near food before in her life, which in some ways she hadn't.

It felt good to see her happy, to see her little face free of all marks and lines. To see her happy and my goodness I knew straight away why there were four of us. I understood what my Mum had came up against. She had said when he had Peter she had wanted me and wasn't too disheartened that we were close in age becausethe joys of having me and Peter and watching us smile was enough to make her have Edmund.

After a while of nudging her back in place and gently rubbing her stomach when it grew fat with milk she was taken from me and I was given Diara. That was harder, Diara had no grip she wasn't able to hold onto me and kept turning her head away I tried to put her back on. I knew she needed this, I knew if she wouldn't feed she could never thrive. If she didn't then she would definitely die. My baby could not die! I felt myself beginning to cry in frustration, she needed this. I tried rubbing a droplet of the milk that constantly leaked from me onto her lips she licked a little but not enough. Eventually after two and a half hours trying to breastfeed two babies Tibberus took Diara from me. She mopped up my tears and said I had an hour or two and we would try again. Inara would be hungry by then, but would Diara.

Tibberus hadn't long left when I dressed and headed slowly, one step at a time onto the balcony. I ached in the stomach, chest and between my legs, all sore from the birth and the pains that came afterwards. I needed the air. Caspian had been called to an emergency meeting, they had to launch a ship first light to collect Peter and a younge orphan who had also fallen victim to the Kraken from Ramandu's Island. They also had to understand a propostion sent from the Rebels. I had asked for more information but Tibberus had brought it and had no more to give. They didn't want to worry me- it didn't matter that I now had two sweet little girls I was still treated as though I was pregnant.

Standing on the balcony did nothing. I wanted my babies, to hold them, wrap them tight in my arms and sing to them, cuddle them, kiss their little heads. It was a long walk to the nursery, I had a walking stick but even with that every step sent waves of shock flying through my body. I felt pain everytime I moved one leg forward, feeling my new skin screem and the suffering skin complain. My breasts weren't any different whatever I did, dairy cows would forever have my sympathy.

It must have taken me at least ten minutes to even get from my room down the corridor towards the Nursery. It was much further away than if I had been in the room I generally shared with Caspian. Opening the door and seeing the two little bundles wrapped in white swaddling lying in their own little cradles, where they had gained a second I didn't know. The room was very bare, no tapestries or finaries. They would gain gifts when a feast was eventually held in their honour in a few weeks time.

I went straight for their cots, lifting one of my beautiful tots then the other, Inara wriggled while Diara lay. Inara already hungry once more kept nuzzling me for food. I sat on the edge of a dresser, a head in the crook of each arm. I mumbled to them, silly little things, like telling them their names and their blood line. I was humming White Cliffs when there was a knock on the heavy wooden door.

"Your majesty, a visitor." I didn't even look up when I heard the voice of the mouse, my body guard for four months. I nodded and continued to hum to the little babies, both beginning to drift off to sleep. I looked up when my visitor didn't speak.

She was not who I suspected her to be. Standing in her knee length skirt, wool arran jumper and with gravy colouring her legs to keep up the appearances of silk stockings.

"Susan," my Mum whispered.


	14. Chapter 13

(Susan)

"Mum?" I couldn't believe she was actually standing in front of me. My mother. Here. In Narnia. It barely made sense, how could she be here? She wasn't a child and she certainly wasn't a believer. I almost felt like I'd been found bed-hopping, I felt she shouldn't be seeing me like this, that she wouldn't understand my other life, my alter ego as High Queen. Her world was London England. 6 Dorset Avenue to be precise not Narnia!

I almost didn't want her in that room, she would argue and be critical and have no understanding of anything I or the others tried to tell her. She was used to being in charge of us all, after Father went to war mum did everything, she worked, mended and smacked us- all the things that had once been Dad's jobs. She had been mum and Dad for the past three years and not had anyone to tell her otherwise. She was kind but strong-minded.

"Susan, the," she paused to laugh like a madman, "the mouse showed me in."

She spotted the babies in my arms and flew to them as if they were a box of free silk stockings and a whole 6oz of chocolate.

"Oh Susan they are beautiful,"

For a brief second I really thought she understood I thought she saw them and me and it had clicked in her head but I should've known.

"Who's are they?"It came as soon as she'd seen them. She hasn't even noticed how big my stomach still was. She would never have suspected a thing- just like Mrs Hope had never expected her daughter Sarah to love another girl. Things happened different in this day.

I offered Inara to her and she took the tiny babe happily, cooing over my daughter. Her granddaughter. Inara and my Mum shared glances back and forth, the baby's bright blue eyes staring deep into her lined face. My mother's eyes widened, her smile vanished and slowly, very slowly she turned to look at me. Her eyes asked a thousand questions, disbelief with no choice but to believe. She couldn't speak just looked at me and then,

"Susan what's going on here? Where am I?"

Nothing. She hadn't got it. And I didn't have the heart to tell her, not now. I didn't want to start an argument, didn't want to upset things I felt too groggy to deal with anything else, my brain was already waiting to explode from the worries for the tot in my arms. My poor baby, she blinked at me, her fuzzy, silky dark hair sticking up on her slightly egg shaped head. Her eyes were darker than her sisters, perhaps she'd gain the bewitching black eyes of her Father.

"Susan," my Mother asked again, drawing my attention from my firstborn.

"I, Mum this is not the best time to ask questions. There's so much to explain-,"

"Of course there is! I was in London a few hours ago. I walked through my kitchen door and I was in a forest!"

Her yelling made Inara feel uncomfortable and she began to wail in the crackly voice that belonged to all newborns, she wriggled in my Mum's arms and she crossed the floor to hand the baby back to me.

"She's probably hungry, maybe she needs to go back to her mother," I propped Diara further into the crook of one arm and went to take Inara. Mum shook her head,

"No, no I'll carry her, where will I find her Mum?" I froze, I really didn't want to tell her, really didn't want to. For the first time since I'd met Caspian I felt I'd done something wrong, knew she wouldn't see it that way.

"You don't need to look. Mum, your holding your granddaughter."

(Caspian)

"What! What is this, how could you do this?"

I could not believe my eyes, could not believe I was seeing and hearing this. She had led the rebellion. I glared at the dark-haired and sun kissed figure of my Aunt as she stood before me in the hands of two guards.

"Your own nephew?" It was sickening what one mad woman could do, she had never liked me but Susan and the girls- they were innocent, they could have and almost did die due to the actions of revenge taken by her. Some telmarines still saw her as Queen which I could understand but she had no right to the title or the gold. She was a lady at most or a duchess.

"I have a son, a prince who has a right to that throne, a right to be king," I couldn't hold the rage back, the sarcasm dripping through hatred,

"So that gives you the right to kill three royals, gives you the right to kill unborn children and their mother in one quick swipe. You knew we were not around, you knew they hadn't the defences."

Prunaprisnia went to open her mouth once more but I cut her off, striking her with words I wished were a sword,

"And that child? I know what you did, you were desperate and my Uncle was not succeeding- some of the lords are not as much with you as you would expect. That includes Azoray's Father. My Uncle had nothing to do with him, he bares no royal blood."

A touch on the arm from Edmund was both warning and support, defeated by my rage I submitted and let the young king answer.

"Prunaprisnia, you have committed and are subject to the laws surrounding attempted high treason. Of which the penalty is death. For the sake of Azoray we renounce the claim, you shall have lifelong imprisonment and the boy will be placed with a family who will care for him like any other boy. You may see him twice a week and make no more decisions about his care. If you slip up you shall be transported to the Lone Islands instead- and unable to be a part of Azoray's life. That is the final ruling."

With that I watched my aunt being led away, anger still boiling with what had happened, royalty at its very best- deadly.

I left the counsel room straight away, heading to my own quarters for air and breathing space. I was detested by every member of my own family, what did I have? But I knew not to ask such stupid things , I had Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Reepicheep, Glenstorm and Trumpkin. I has Susan and our babies, Diara and Inara. I had built my own family with the help if no one. Family wasn't always something you were born with, it was something you chose in the people you loved.

I was walking along on the way to my quarters when I began to hear loud voices from the nursery. One was Susan's and the other I didn't recognise. She had had enough to deal with over the past few days- so badly injured by the birth, so much pain during it and our firstborn was already showing signs of a crippling illness. She did not need the added pain of whoever was causing her grievance.

I walked straight into the room to find Susan standing against the wall holding our two babes and another, older woman in the strangest attire- it looked like something a wench would wear- both were yelling. Susan's cheeks were stained with tears and her absent eyes full of a fire that hadn't been there for days.

"What is this?" I spoke out above them both girls turning to look at me instantly like well- trained dogs.

"Caspian, this. This is my Mother Helen and Mum this is King Caspian, my husband."

The eyes of the newly named Helen widened and she turned to her daughter mouthing the word 'king' in disbelief. Susan laughed and nodded.

I didn't understand, how could her mother have arrived here? Her mother, from all I had heard didn't know Narnia existed, so why had she been brought here. Aslan himself was not unknown for summoning people together in strange ways which we should never understand. I really felt my mind was being read when a deep voice I had heard a few times in my life sounded from very close behind me.

"Perhaps I can explain young one,"

As sure as the sky was blue the great lion himself stood behind me, his form large enough for his cheek to meet my shoulder. I moved quickly out of his way and sank to the floor. Susan went to attempt the same but Aslan strode past me and placed a paw gently on her shoulder,

"You have experienced hard times my child, you must not do as is beyond your strength for it will only make you weaker."

Helen, the odd woman that she was had shrank back into the corner and was shaking at the sight of him.

The king of kings turned to the Pevensie Mother now and approached her in the same regal manor.

"Do not be affraid Helen Pevensie, no harm will ever come to you here. Your children have served and honoured myself and Narnia in many adventures you know very little of.

"I called you hear because their time is coming to a close and Susan must make her decision." Aslan stopped and turned to look at my wife,

"She has two families now, one which is more in need of her than the other, she must make the decision. " He turned back to Helen even though he had never stopped talking to her,

You were brought here to say your goodbyes as the others of your children are prepared to leave.

"Neither you or the children will ever return to Narnia beyond this day. You, if she decides to be with those who need her tending, will not see your elders again until you are ready to leave your own world for my own country."

With that the lion slowly turned and left the room, no one questioned his leaving. The babies began to cry again once they were removed from his pressence and Susan's Mother began to shake once more.

"That was a talking Lion!" She laughed, "a talking Mouse then a talking Lion, I'm going mad."

"Mum...," Susan stopped, she couldn't say what she needed to say, couldn't break the news but I already knew she had long since chosen. I walked over to her, relieving her of Inara and taking her spare hand for support. My wife's eyes looked right to the ground.

"Mum, Aslan's right," tears began to bubble from her spirit, "I'm not coming home. I belong here."

Helen stared at us, at Susan's upset and the tiny kids we held.

"Well, I, Susan. Your my baby too, we'd manage, somehow. I'd speak to your Father, it would be ok we'd manage as eight." Helen was pleading now, she was so bewildered by our world but somehow she still understood, she knew this was the end for her.

"No, Mum. I love Caspian, they need there country and I would hope he needs me too."

I nodded, not wanting to interrupt in a conversation that wasn't mine to decide, I stood silently, trying to comfort Inara who was desperately trying to make us aware of how hungry she was. Helen didn't say anything more, simply nodding at what Susan has to say, the older woman looked defeated.

"Will I really never see you again?" The iron Mother Susan had described disappeared and became weak, she spilt tears down her cheeks and looked like she was pleading Susan even though it wasn't her who had made the decision.

"I think, I think I'm too much a part of the royal family now, more a part than I was when we were all crowned before. I have two heirs to the throne here," Susan nodded to her arms, "They're going to need a childhood. Caspian lost his mother when he was born, I don't want them to live without theirs. I understand it all now Mum, I see what it feels like to love a baby, to love my babies. I'm sorry mum but I need to stay here." The two girls were both in tears, both upset by this horrid goodbye. Helen walked straight across the room as regal as her daughter and hugged her tight. Susan began to sob sadly, feeling so confused about what she was supposed to think.

"That's my girl Susan Pevensie, my big girl. I knew you'd say that, you have the sense to do the right thing, I wish I had longer to get to know them. This world, this castle, the animals- everything. It's so mad but if its where you belong. It's where they were born and where your heart lies,"

Susan nodded, not able to speak and her mother's words were beautiful.

(Susan)

They didn't get long, but Aslan allowed a few days for Mum to say goodbye, for the news to be broken to Edmund, Peter and Lucy. And of course for Peter to return.

My mother was shown to her own quarters, a room that we had become used to but was very exotic for her. She had laughed and said her GrandFather Robinson used to have a wash bowl like the one in her room. She'd never seen a real four poster bed either. I found her a proper Narnian dress to wear soon after I'd met her. I knew Aslan wouldn't take them before Peter returned, so she might as well be comfortable. She found the dress I gave her so comfortable and couldn't stop admiring both the embroidery and the seams. She looked like a child on Christmas Day, she was so animated and happy. I'd go as far as to say she was more playful, the beach holiday the year Lucy was born came straight into my head.

My mum had a hard delivery with Lucy she was very sick afterwards, it had placed a lot of stress on Dad and Edmund couldn't understand him being only eighteen months old. I was four and Peter five, two months later we went to the seaside for a week and I remember it being like Mum was reborn. She played with us, racing around on the sand while Dad pushed the pram, she had been a new person after a hard end to her pregnancy and a very painful birth. I'd lost my Mum again when the war began and Dad had to go off to fight again. Now she was just as happy as she had once been, she'd began to embrace the madness of where we were just like we had. Mum was more adventurous than I was, she was more like Lucy and Peter, Edmund and I more like our Father- I wasn't surprised she'd taken to everything as Lucy had. I very slowly sat down on her bed, having given the twins to their Dad for a rare moment- the telmarines were not instinctual Fathers and he panicked a lot, Tibberus suggested it was better to leave him on his own with them. I wasn't supposed to be walking around but I wanted to have my last moment before I was stuck for the next two hours again to feed the babies.

Mum was drawn back to reality when I did, remembering my pain and that I'd just given birth.

"How long ago was it?" Mum asked coming to sit next to me,

"The eldest was born around twelve fifty on the twentieth and the second around one today- around nine hours ago."

Mum shook her head, the Father- oh what's his name again?

"Caspian," I laughed rolling my eyes.

"Yes Caspian, he was right, you shouldn't be moving around- to much going on down there. You need to rest."

"They chopped me open Mum, the second was born be Caesarean section and I didn't have any anaesthetic. It was really painful."

My mum nodded, she took my hand smiling,

" I didn't know about you, Susan. You were always determined- tried to toilet train Edmund at a year old, you always had it but for some reason I never thought you'd be the Mother."

"Maybe, maybe it's because you were never supposed to see me a Mum."

It was three days before a ship was sighted entering the harbour at Cair Paravel. A ship that no one recognised and there was great worry over more attack. Pirates were the last thing we needed. I had other matters pressing, the arrival of the ship wasn't half as upsetting as the more personal news.

Diara was sick.

She hadn't been feeding properly at all since her birth and then we were awoken one morning by the nurse, named Peronefey- a leopard- who watched them at night. It was still dark, the stars still danced the skies when she woke us. Caspian reached instantly for his sword, the fear of his past assassination attempt still strong in his mind. I grabbed his wrist stopping him from hurting the girl just as she began to speak,

"Your highness' her majesty princess Diara is burning a high fever, she is very weak."

Hours. Hours she lay in my arms not making a sound. She was striped to her nappy, Caspian and Lucy helping dab her skin with cold water. Edmund ran up and down to the well, wetting a big knitted blanket which we wrapped tightly around her, anything to cool her. The blue eyes remained hidden behind her eyelids, she whimpered and her breathing crackled. Caspian tapped away on her back, coaxing her to breath. I tried offering her food, letting her lip droplets that I could squeeze out onto her tongue. We tried using a wet cloth and squeezing water into her mouth too. Hours and hours.

The sun was rising up when my Mum offered to take over but I couldn't. She was my baby, she needed me. I was brought food, water and Inara when she needed feeding but I didn't move from my very odd baby. When I watched over I began to get a good look at her slightly deformed body. Her left arm was straight to the elbow and then it bent across her chest and stuck like that, her hand limply hanging from her wrist. Her right leg bent inwards drastically so her right big toe almost touched the arch of her left foot. She wasn't at all health and she twitched and her cries were tiny. Poor baby, but she was strong, so, so strong. She'd wrap her hand round my fingers and squeeze them, trying to tell me she was alright. Caspian dragged the others away to the Cair for the docking of this strange ship saying it would be good to remove ourselves from the sad situation. I didn't go, needed to stay with my baby. I felt terrible, I'd been neglecting Inara other than for feeding but at the same time Diara was floating between fever and health. My sister could have saved Diara, but should we? We couldn't determine if her life would be good, would be fulfilling and meaningful, what if her deformities were on the inside as well? I knew a boy, lost both legs in the war and he came out the hospital two weeks before he shot himself from self-loathing. He hated that life too much to go on with it. I didn't want Diara to suffer for the rest of her days but she already suffered from being so sick. Was I making her worse or better? I just didn't know, didn't understand. Who knew it could be so hard?

(Peter)

We saw the army waiting as the masterpiece, the Glister, smoothly jumped the waves and came in to the bay at the feet of Cair Paravel. The beautiful castle was beyond my memories now it was almost full restored. I was glad to see there were forces waiting, it hasn't been expected for us to come home. They weren't ready to raise the banners and begin the feast. They were less prepared for the story.

It was so strange, we had gone from the living quarters on the cliffs of Ramandu's Island to find that there was a boat, a perfect little voyager bobbing like a stick in a stream just out from the bay. It was so unbelievable I thought I was dreaming. With the help of Liliandil and Gael we ransacked the ship to find no sailors or bodies. The ship contained shinning weapons and enough food to, to get us back to Narnia.

It was our ticket out of here, our way back to normality again. Back home.

And now, with the people I had began to consider my Wife and daughter in everything but documentation. I lifted the dark haired girl to sit on the side of the ship, holding her waist incase she slipped and smiled, waving at the people who looked down, I saw confusion on their faces and then delight. Weapons dropped as word spread through the crowd. As we hit the shallows Caspian and Lucy arrived on the beach quickly followed by Edmund who carried an anchor for the Glister.

"Peter!" Triplicate cries came out to great us. The boat needed anchored far back in the shadows, we had to swim in to the sands to great them. Edmund waded out and met me with the anchor tying it off before I helped the girls into the water.

I tried not to laugh at Caspian's sarcastic shock when he saw the half-star at my side, he had always known but never said more than a few words. The greasing was filled with hand shakes and introductions and hugs from little sister which reminded me, I had another little sister,

"Susan?" I asked turning to Caspian, he grinned the proud smile always reflected of a father.

"We have Twin girls, Diara Susana and Inara Helena and oh Peter they are beautiful-"

"Peter!" The other call interrupted Caspian and a strange recognition ticked into my head. I knew that voice. It was my Mother. I froze because really it couldn't be. Then I turned towards my name and she fluttered towards me, arms out stretched to hug me. Her hair loose and dressed as a Narnian. She hugged me tight and kissed my cheek. I laughed, totally startled,

"We'll what else have I missed these past four months?"

(A/N) and that my awesome readers is where the story ends. I know the ending isn't great, I still have the epilogue which will tie off a lot if loose ends. Thank you all for being so awesome thankyou. LillyZ TrappedInNarnia, Narnia and Harry Potter 4 Ever and TrueLoveRose ( hope I've done all of the properly sorry if I've misspelled they weren't checked!) for all being so helpful in your reviews and comments and thank you so much for keeping this going and begging for more. I feel quite sad to have finished it now but actually I think it's more that I'll miss the readers than the writing. Thank you, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the epilogue


	15. Epilogue

(Susan)

I wasn't alone in staying in Narnia, they kept their high King also. Peter married the star a month later and the orphaned Gael stole his heart just as much that she was adopted by the couple, getting to grow up with her cousins. Peter arrived home the day before our family left forever. It hurt to say goodbye but it was bitter sweet since Diara's fever broke and the traditional Narnian festival took place that night to welcome the new princesses. There was music and dancing and gifts and speeches and commitments- very like a marriage. The dwarves granted them their first crowns, made small enough for their little heads but it was promised they would be carefully expanded to always fit their little heads.

It turned out not to be the last time we say Lucy and Edmund. We set out the following year to take on the Kraken and awaken the enchanted lords only to find our brother and sister- along with awful cousin Eustace- in the very middle of the ocean. And so Diara and Inara got to meet their family again and we got to here of home. A very great lion had come to our Father in a dream and told him he would not see us again and for some strange reason he believed the dream. It still hurt severely when he learned it was all true but he understood though he never disclosed the dream.

It has now been four years since that day. I have two happy little girls, identical in every way but one. Diara has kept my blue eyes where as Inara's gained Caspian's black ones. They have a darkish brown hair colour and are always happy, always curious- they didn't find it difficult to take to the water either, just like their Father.

They have blood cousins now too, Peter is the proud- if not a little overly- father of a baby boy named Toby age two and a newborn named Percy. Both are blonde and blue eyed like their parents making Gael the odd one. She now knows because of her adoption she can never be Queen but the eleven year old doesn't mind, simply enjoying her cousins and brother's alike. We often have Caspian's cousin Azoray too, Caspian wanted him to keep some of his telmarine culture and being raised by centaurs he wouldn't learn it otherwise. I am glad to say that he has become his cousin'a type of telmarine. Azoray is brave, honest and good- for a five year old.

Diara has shocked us all by learning to walk, it happened this summer and we expected she never would. She can also speak some words and is beginning to learn some understanding of toilet training. She is suffering from a severe development delay but there is now reason she can't catch up- she does have determination from both sides of the family after all. The condition in her arms and legs have stayed the same. I had seen children like her though if there was a name for that condition I didn't know it.

As for siblings? I have carried three times since they were born but no baby so far has made it into life, I'm glad I have two children even if I will suffer from many more losses. We had a girl, Guinevere, she was very close. A full grown little tot who we lost during her birth, a tradgedy but she is now in Aslan's country with the Grandmother who would have loved her and the bravest mouse I ever knew.

From one month to the next everything can change, anything can change and does amongst our small family of four and our vast family that is the whole of Narnia. No one can ever tell what the next few months can bring.

Susan Pevensie (High Queen)

Xx


	16. Thoughts

Well obviously this isn't a new chapter since I've already done the epilogue but there are two stories flying in my head at the moment and I need to make myself put them on paper- but you know that thing called time? Yeh that, I'm not good at finding it!  
I would like to maybe write a sequel to this but it would be a lot shorter- less than 5000 words anyway! But I have nothing to put in it, no real plot at all...  
Something makes me want to take it further even though. I'm not making any promises to it, no definites that it will actually be done but if anyone has any ideas...?  
The other is more likely to be written featuring Susan as a WWII spy... Oooh but I'm making no promises.


	17. Last form of notes I PROMISE!

Yeh I know! I wasn't planning on any more on this story but I just wanted to mention that I have a new story. A one shot I'd love to make longer- and well i hope people give it a go- whether it can be made longer I don't know. I like it, would love to hear your thoughts guys- I've missed people's comments so much!

Thanks

ps it's called Caspian XI so you can find it- looking forward to your comments!


End file.
